Prionitis Schmitziana. Sp. nov. 



Syn. Cryptonemia Wilsoni J. Ag? in K. Okam. New or little known 

 Alg. Jap. p. 8 pi. IX. Fig. 16-22 (Bot. Mag. Tokyo, vol. IX. No. 106.) 



This plant lias been described and illustrated in my paper entitled 

 " New or little known Ag. form Jap. p. S pi. IX. Fig. 16-22 under 

 the name of Cryptonemia. Wilsoni J. Ag ? In establishing this plant as 

 a new species of Prionitis it will be necessary to give its revised diagnosis 

 and to add a few lines as to the form of the frond. 



Diagnosis : Frond high, stipitate, leathery, deep-red, without midrib, 

 branching by repeated proliferations from margin and apex as well as 

 from the surfaces ; with segments leaflike, broadly lanceolate, simple or 

 forked and pedicellated, either entire or wasted at margin. Fruits of 

 both kinds collected in sporophylls, densely arising from margin and surfaces. 

 Tetraspores in thinner, minute roundish-oblong sporophylls. Cystocarps 

 in similar but thicker ones. 



Hab. On rocks in deep water. Shima, Mikawa. Sagami. 



Description : Fronds either solitary or coespitose, arising from a com- 

 mon scutate disc, cuneato-lanceolate in their very young stage, having a. 

 short cylindrical stem. This primary lanceolate form rarely persists ; more 

 usually, as the frond grows in thickness, it is wasted off at its upper por- 

 tion and then it assumes a broad wedge shape, as I have illustrated in 

 I.e. fig. 16 b. Proliferations arise from harmed ends, margins and sur- 

 faces. They are when fully formed broadly lanceolate, with acute or blunt 

 apex and entire margin, tapering below into cuneate base and furnished 

 with short pedicels. They are mostly simple, but sometimes forked near 

 the base, and become in age wasted at their upper portion. Younger 

 proliferations are naked, but in older, again loaded with another sort of 

 proliferations. As the frond advances in age, the older segments thicken 

 very much and they are often broken up longitudinally by waves or injured 

 by certain animalcules, and as the destruction more and more proceeds from 

 such injured portions, they become much narrower. In such an older fond, 

 the originally broad segment is torn up into some numbers of parts which 

 appear like narrower branches. Among my specimens, I have observed an 

 old one which has segments proliferated 3-4 times. The duration of plant, 

 as. the consequence of such a mode of growth, is at least biennial : for in 



