464 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. XVII, October 1963 
in Fig, 3) are abundant, and undoubtedly con- 
tribute to the strength of the otherwise weak, 
gelatinous, branch substance. 
The surface of the auxiliary cell (b in Fig. 
17), beneath the connecting filament, appar- 
ently develops a protrusion that moves the con- 
necting filament away from the auxiliary-cell 
branch axis. From this protuberance of the 
auxiliary cell (p in Fig. 17) gonimoblast ini- 
tials arise. While the gonimoblast, upon smear- 
ing, reveals its fundamentally filamentous na- 
ture (Fig. 17), in the undisturbed condition it 
is a dense almost spherical mass. Older gonimo- 
blasts have one (or a few) very large cells at 
the center: all the other cells appear to be uni- 
form, as though all could become carposporan- 
gia in time. 
MATERIALS EXAMINED (all from the island 
of Oahu, Hawaii; the collection numbers are 
the authors, except the first): J. T. Conover, 
200 Berkeley , 5 tetrasporic, found about 550 
ft along a line extending about 113° from the 
old marine laboratory at Waikiki on underside 
of a coral head about halfway out on the reef 
at a depth of 1.2 m, VIII-43; D. W. Strasburg , 
8525 (bishop) tetrasporic and seirosporic, 
University of Hawaii old beach laboratory, Wai- 
kiki, Honolulu (21° 16.2' N, 157° 49.6' W), 
1-51; M. Doty, 8562 (Stanford), another 
branch of the same thallus as 8525, but col- 
lected 25 days later; George Ikeda, 10385 
(AUSTRALIA) tetrasporic, Lae o Kaoio, Kua- 
loa, Kaaawa, one of two clumps seen in 5 ft 
of water, 11-52; George Ikeda, 10386 (Stan- 
ford, BERKELEY) carpogonial, in 4-5 ft of 
water on limestone bottom (same area as Ikeda 
collection of 11-52, above), V-52; Jack Randall, 
17020 (BERKELEY) seirosporic, drifting freely 
below the surface off Oahu, Hawaii, VI-52; 
6 Names appearing in this position refer to the fol- 
lowing repositories of the particular material : bishop, 
B. P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii; STANFORD, 
Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University, Pa- 
cific Grove, Calif.; BERKELEY, Herbarium of the 
University of California, Berkeley, Calif.; PARIS, 
Laboratoire de Cryptogamie du Museum National 
d’Histoire Naturelle; AUSTRALIA, Herbarium of the 
University of Adelaide, Adelaide, S. Australia; HOK- 
KAIDO, Herbarium of the Faculty of Science, Hokkaido 
University, Sapporo, Japan; VANCOUVER, Herbarium 
of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, 
British Columbia. 
M. Doty, 12343 (Stanford) tetrasporic, 
floating freely at the surface just north of the 
mouth of Koloa stream south of Laie, 1-54; M. 
Doty, 12286 (hokkaido) first of a series 
of collections from the same tetrasporic thallus 
growing about 7 ft below the surface along the 
inshore edge of the swimming channel in front 
of the new University of Hawaii beach labora- 
tory at Waikiki, Honolulu, XII-52; M. Doty, 
12652 and 12647 (PARIS) tetrasporic, both 
same thallus as 12286, about X-54; 17019 
(bishop) sterile, same thallus as 12286, IH- 
55; Jan New house and Malvern Gilmartin, 
12671 (VANCOUVER) tetrasporic, beyond the 
reef, Waikiki, Honolulu, XI-54; HOLOTYPE, M. 
Doty and B. C. Stone, TYPE 19263 (BISHOP) 
cystocarpic, drifting at the surface, Waikiki, 
Honolulu, (near 21° 16' N, 157° 49.5' W), 
1-60; Elvin Fong, 19478 (Stanford) cysto- 
carpic and tetrasporic, on a 3 by 4 ft rock in 
15 to 20 ft of water 150 yd off Haleiwa Army 
Beach near the channel at Haleiwa, VI-55. 
This is one of the less common algae occur- 
ring along the shores of Oahu in Hawaii. It has 
been found adrift in a few cases, but for the 
most part it is found growing L to 2 m below 
low tide on reef flats. The hemispherical pale 
thalli were often found growing in a concavity 
or on a vertical surface. One individual thallus, 
near the University’s aquarium and beach lab- 
oratory at Waikiki in Honolulu, was watched 
and pieces were harvested from it at irregular 
intervals for about 3 yr. The deepest collection 
was that made by Jan Newhouse and Dr. Mal- 
vern Gilmartin from the base of a coral patch 
on rock bottom in 7 m of water about 1000 m 
beyond the reef opposite the Natatorium at 
Waikiki. 
The stem, the perennial nature of the thallus 
and some of the reproductory features of Gib- 
smithia show some resemblance to the much 
recopied small portion of Gmelin’s specimen 
(1768: pi. 5, fig. 2) of Constantinea 6 (e. g., 
Kylin, 1956: fig. 102). 
It is to be noted that at least three collections 
of Gibsmithia, including the type, were of free- 
floating branches. It would appear that the 
w The figure given by Okamura (1912: pi. 77, figs. 
1, 2) conveys a rather different conception of this 
alga— a more correct one it would seem. 
