438 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, VoL VIII, October, 1954 
My specimens are smaller and more de- 
cumbent than the Japanese plants illustrated 
by Okamura and by Tanaka, but they agree 
very well with Caribbean specimens reported 
by Taylor. The frequent habit of growing in 
loosely matted fashion on coarse sand, gravel, 
and shell fragments in somewhat protected 
places has been noted by most authors. Her- 
barium specimens usually have many bits of 
such material adhering to them. 
Hypnea nidulans Setchell 1924: 161 (Sa- 
moa); Tanaka 1941: 246, figs. 18-19 
Fig. 46^-g 
LOCAL distribution: Forming dense, pub 
vinate clumps on coral dredged from 2-3 m., 
Sta. 2 (11422, 11445); on coral rocks, Sta. 1 
( 11136 ). 
These are in excellent agreement with Ta- 
naka’s illustrations of this quite clearly de- 
fined species. 
Carpopeltis formosana Okamura 1931:110, 
pi. 12, figs. 1-7 (Formosa) 
Fig. 48^ 
LOCAL DISTRIBUTION: Cua Be, Aug. 28, 
1949 (coll. R. Serene). 
The specimens are somewhat poorly and 
irregularly developed due to regeneration after 
grazing. However, in habit, size, and struc- 
ture they are in good agreement with the 
Formosan species. 
Ceratodictyon spongiosum Zanardinil878: 
36 , No. 8 (Papua); Okamura 1909, leones 
2, pis. 51, 52 
Fig. 48c 
LOCAL DISTRIBUTION: Common, forming 
dark-greenish to purplish, branched, anasto- 
mosing masses on rocks and coral, Sta. 1 
( 11112 ). 
This red alga, living in apparent symbiotic 
relationship with a sponge, and assuming, 
with its symbiont, the form of a sponge, has 
been extensively illustrated by Okamura, 
Gracilaria crassa Harvey, ex J. Agardh 
1876: 417 (Ceylon); Bprgesen 1936: 86, 
fig. 8; B0rgesen 1952: 33. Corallopsis opuntia 
J. Agardh 1876: 409; Okamura 1933, leones 
7, pL 308, figs. 6-11 
Fig. 48^ 
LOCAL DISTRIBUTION: Sta. 2 (11081); Sta. 
4 (11187). 
Transections of cystocarpic thalli of this 
plant have been studied and found to agree 
with the genus Gracilaria in every respect. 
The characteristic nutritive filaments running 
out from the gonimoblast to the pericarp are 
present and conspicuous (Dawson 1949). 
This fleshy, turgid plant in its younger 
stages grows in a contorted, creeping fashion, 
ramifying and attaching itself in numerous 
places to crevices in old coral or rocks. In this 
stage it is without regular constrictions. The 
constrictions develop as the plant matures, 
and these become more pronounced and the 
segments more elongated as the free branches 
become longer and more pendant. It is col- 
lected for food in the vicinity of Truong 
Dong. 
Gracilaria eucheumoides Harvey 1859: 331 
(Ousima, Ryukyu Islands) 
Fig. 48^ 
LOCAL DISTRIBUTION: Scarce, creeping in 
crevices of coral in 1-2 m., Sta. 7 (11251). 
Only a few sterile examples of this plant 
were found. It is considered an edible species 
in the area but does not occur abundantly 
enough to be specially collected. 
Gracilaria verrucosa (Huds.) Papenfuss 
1950: 195 . Fucus verrucosus Hudson 1762: 
470 (England). Gracilaria confervoides (L.) 
Grev., as employed by Dawson 1949: 13, 
pl. 15, fig. 9 49 
LOCAL DISTRIBUTION: Sta. 4 (11216, 11424); 
dredged from 2-4 m., Sta. 2 (11299). 
The several collections cited are unmistak- 
