On the Vegetative Multiplication of Chondria 



crassicaulis Harv. and its 



Systematic Position .^^ 



{Bead before the Tokyo Botanical Society, 20, Deer., 1902). 



By 

 K. Okamura, RigakuliakiLsM, 



As far as we know, there is no single case recorded where vegetative 

 multiplication, by a body having dense cellular structure, was observed in any 

 algae belonging to Florideae, Schmitz and Hauptileisch tell us in Engler and 

 Prantl's *' Die natiirlichen Pflanzenfamilien"^^ that vegetative multiplication 

 is not known almost entirely in PJiodophyceae, It is known, in Bangiaceae, 

 some cells remain alive while others die off and those living cells develope into 

 new plants. In Melohesia callithamnioides Fkhg.p fan-shaped ^^Brutknosp- 

 en'^ are said to develope to new individuals. Those instances together with 

 some monospores are all we know as something like the reproduction of this 

 kind in Florideae. 



It would not be without some interest to mention here about an instance 

 of true vegetative multiplication in a plant belonging to Rhodomelaceae, 

 that is Chondria crassicaulis Harv}^ As I shall state later on, I can not 

 agree with J. Agardh's opinion with regard to the systematic position of 

 this alga. It has a wider range of distribution in this country, growing on 

 rocks between tide-marks, both along the coasts of the Pacific and the Japan 

 Sea. No one has yet I discovered reproductive cells in this plant except 

 tetrasporangia,^^ and whenever I happened to come in contact with the 



1). The illustrations for this paper will be put in a future number of my " Ulustratiom 

 of the Marine Algae of Japan" 



2). I. Teil, 2. Abteilung, p. 301. 



3). Solms Laubach — Die Coralllnenalgen des Golfes von Neapel und der angrenzenden 

 Meeresabschnitte. (Fauna und Flora des Golfes von Neapel. Monogr. IV. 1881.) 



4). Harvey. — Alg. Nov. Wright in Proceed, of the Americ. Acad. Vol. IV. p. 329. 



5}. Tetrasporapgia have been discovered in the course of this study by Mr. H. Oishi. 



