Studies in Fitchia— CARLQUIST and GRANT 
293 
venation may have been present ancestrally in 
Fitchia . Is the more complex condition primitive 
or a specialization? The question cannot be 
answered in terms of the data available, and 
cytological information would be very desirable 
as a line of supporting evidence. 
Distribution of thin-walled and thick-walled 
trichomes and occurrence of sclereids on corolla- 
lobe tips have proved useful features in the 
systematics of Fitchia. In the two new taxa these 
features are also of interest. Fitchia cordata ( Fig. 
21) possesses lobe tips not identical to those of 
any species previously figured. The frequency 
of sclereids at the lobe tip is notable. Long 
multiseriate trichomes, all the cells of which are 
sclereids, are present. No trichomes composed of 
nonlignified cells were observed. This condition 
is most closely matched in the genus only in 
the new subspecies of F. cuneata (Fig. 20). In 
F. cuneata ssp. tahaaensis sclereids are rare or 
absent at the lobe tips. The trichomes are long, 
multiseriate (rarely unisef. fate ) , and composed 
wholly of sclereids. This condition is not unlike 
the condition in typical F. cuneata, except that 
the trichomes in the Tahaa plants are few and 
long. 
The corolla-lobe tips of F. rapensis (Fig. 
25) are, as might be expected, rather similar 
to those of F. mangarevensis (Carlquist, 1957: 
27 ) . They are different in that in F. rapensis the 
sclerified trichomes are slightly longer, in gen- 
eral, and extend farther down the lobe. Oc- 
casional thin-walled hairs may be seen on the 
terminal portion of lobes of F. rapensis, but 
the extremely dense coating of thick-walled lig- 
nified trichomes clearly marks this pattern as 
closest to that of F. mangarevensis. 
STAMENS: Stamen tips likewise offer taxo- 
nomic criteria. The long stamen tips of F. cor- 
data (Fig. 23) exceed those of F . nutans in size, 
and are thus the longest of the Society Islands 
species of Fitchia. The stamen tips of F. cuneata 
ssp. tahaaensis (Fig. 22) are longer than those 
of the typical F. cuneata, but do not differ mark- 
edly from those of F. tahitensis or F. nutans. 
The stamen tips of F. rapensis (Fig. 27) are 
1.5 mm long, thus matching those of F. man- 
garevensis. This is particularly interesting be- 
cause the two species are so much alike in this 
respect and because they have longer stamen 
tips than the other species of the genus, with the 
exception of F. speciosa. 
A feature of some interest not previously 
observed is the occurrence of somewhat caudate 
anther sacs in F. cuneata ssp. tahaaensis (Fig. 
24) and the other taxa of Fitchia. In view of 
Cronquist’s (1955) dictum that anthers of Com- 
positae are primitively tailless, this would seem 
curious, because Fitchia possesses so many ana- 
tomical and morphological characteristics which 
appear primitive for the family. Cronquist’s 
dictum, for which no appreciable evidence is 
adduced, seems highly questionable. 
In transection the anthers of F. cuneata ssp. 
tahaaensis (Fig. 19) exhibit a feature of interest. 
One or two secretory canals may be observed in 
the connective of each anther. This condition 
occurs sparingly in F. speciosa, but was not 
observed in other species of Fitchia. The oc- 
currence of anther secretory canals has been 
noted in other genera which may be related to 
Fitchia, such as P etrohium and Oparanthus 
(Carlquist, 1957). 
STYLE: Like the anthers, the style of F. cuneata 
ssp. tahaaensis (Fig. 19) seems to exhibit more 
numerous secretory canals than those of other 
species of Fitchia. One canal (or occasionally a 
pair) is present exterior to each of the four 
style bundles. Liquid-preserved material is re- 
quired for accurate demonstration of this phe- 
nomenon. In the only other species for which 
such material was available, F. speciosa , canals 
were much less abundant in styles (Carlquist, 
1957 ) . However, as indicated in the monograph, 
many other Heliantheae do show abundance of 
stylar secretory canals. 
pollen GRAINS: The drawings of pollen 
grains of Fitchia (Figs. 28-30) show some dif- 
ferences in representation compared with those 
of the monograph. Although the outer sculp- 
tured layer (ectosexine) is composed of fine 
rods and spaces, as illustrated earlier, a lacunose 
inner sculptured layer (endosexine) has now 
been observed. The endosexine consists of rods 
interspersed in large spaces. In addition, an 
inner and outer layer of nexine (below in each 
figure) may be distinguished. Size and spine 
shape are of especial interest, however, in com- 
parison of the species. The markedly blunt 
spines of F. cuneata ssp. tahaaensis (Fig. 29) 
