NOTES ON THE SPECIES OF LIAGORA AND GALAX- 

 AURA OF THE CENTRAL PACIFIC. 



Frederic K. Butters. 



During the past nine years it has been my privilege to examine 

 large collections of specimens of the genera Liagoro and Gala.vaiira 

 from the islands of the Pacific ocean. The largest of these collec- 

 tions was made by Professor Josephine E. Tilden in the Hawaiian 

 Islands during- the summer of 1900. A few specimens of this col- 

 lection have been distributed by Miss Tilden in her Centuries of 

 American Algae. Other collections were made by the United 

 States Fish Commission from the Hawaiian Islands proper and 

 from Bird Island and the Island of Laysan, northwest of that group, 

 and by Miss Tilden from the Island of Tahiti. I have also ex- 

 amined all the material of these genera in the herbarium of the 

 university which was collected in the central part of the Pacific, 

 notably' some collections by A. A. Heller from the Hawaiian 

 Islands. 



The collections of Miss Tilden and of the Fish Commission 

 are preserved in formaldehyde and so admit of much closer and 

 more accurate study than in the case of ordinary dried material. 

 Specimens of all the species discussed below are deposited in the 

 collections of the Botanical Department of the University of Min- 

 nesota. 



I wish to express my thanks to Miss Tilden for placing these 

 collections at my disposal and for many useful suggestions during 

 my study of them, and to Miss Charlotte Waugh for preparing the 

 drawings upon which the value of such descriptions as the follow- 

 ing must largely rest. 



There are in the collections examined thirteen distinct forms 

 of the Genus Liagora and twelve of Galaxaura, besides a few frag- 

 ments which are probably distinct but are too fragmentary to war- 

 rant any attempt at complete description. The question of the limi- 

 tation of species is very troublesome in both genera and particular- 



