36 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. XIX, January 1965 
4. Nitella hyalina (CYT NC-3 ) . Figure lj. 
The report of 18 chromosomes here confirms 
our unpublished counts of 18 chromosomes in 
this species from North Carolina and Mexico. A 
count of 16 was proposed by Gillet (1959) and 
the numbers 12, 14, 18 have all been reported 
by Sato ( 1959), but we have seen no tendency 
towards such variations in Nitella hyalina. 
Fiji 
1-2. Char a corallina ( CYT Fiji— 17 and 20). 
Figure lb, c. 
Both specimens are ecorticate, dioecious, with 
basal gametangia and lateral appendages and fall 
in the earlier category of Chara australis. The 
chromosome count of 14 confirms the counts for 
this species ( MacDonald and Hotchkiss, 1955). 
3. Chara corallina (CYT Fiji-16) . Figure Id. 
A lack of gametangia at the base of the 
branchlets in our material suggested the charac- 
ters of Chara fulgens Fil. in Asch, 4 except for 
the geminate and not solitary gametangia. This 
combination of characters fills one of the blank 
spaces in the table of Homologous Variations 
in the Haplostephanae-ecorticatae of Chara of 
Zaneveld (1940). 
4-5. Chara fibrosa (CYT Fiji-1 and 15 ) . Figure 
1 g, k, i. 
Following the treatment of Zaneveld ( 1940 ) , 
Wood notes that this includes Chara gymnopitys 
A. Br. of earlier authors. A count of 28 chromo- 
somes is a first report for this species and is to be 
compared with our unpublished counts of 42 for 
this species from North Carolina. 
6—7. Nitella acuminata (CYT Fiji- 10 and 14). 
Figure 2a, b, c. 
Wood ( 1965 ) recognizes a dendroid and a 
lax ecad; No. 14 is the dendroid and No. 10 is 
the lax variant. They seem to overlap typical var. 
acuminata. The chromosomes of N. acuminata 
are somewhat similar in form to those of N. 
pseudoflabellata, but these two species can be 
separated on the basis of chromosome form. 
* Wood ( correspondence in 1963) includes C. ful- 
gens in C. corallina; in Fiji he reports the occurrence 
or absence of basal oogonia to be sporadic in other- 
wise identical specimens, which further confirms his 
opinion. 
Counts of 18 have been reported previously for 
N. acuminata var. subglomerata by Hotchkiss 
(1958), Imahori and Kato (1961). 
8-13. Nitella pseudoflabellata (CYT Fiji-2, 11, 
17, 18, 20X). Figure 2d-j. 
Wood (1965) detects six ecads or forms and 
provides noncommittal names. They Include ( 1 ) 
glomerate ( glomerata ), (2) diffuse (diffusa), 
( 3 ) mathuate ( var. mathuata, olim N. muthna- 
tae ), (4) elongate ( elongata ), (5) bushy (fru- 
ticosa ), and (6) tiny (minima). CYT Fiji-2 is 
the glomerate, CYT Fiji-11 is the bushy, CYT 
Fiji-17 is the tiny, CYT Fiji-18 is the diffuse, 
and CYT Fiji-2 OX is the mathuate variant. 
The only record of a chromosome count in 
N. pseudoflabellata is a 24 reported from Japan 
(Imahori and Kato, 1961). Although an expected 
number in Nitella , reports of 24 chromosomes 
have been surprisingly few. 
Samoa 
1. Nitella furcata (CYT Samoa-1 ). Figure Ik. 
A count of 18 chromosomes in this species 
from Samoa is at variance with a report of 24 
(and 48) chromosomes by Imahori and Kato 
(1961) from Japan. 
It is noted again that the number of 14 chro- 
mosomes is the smallest yet found for any species 
of Chara and that the dioecious species reported 
here have this number. The correlation between 
the dioecious condition of sex distribution and 
low chromosome number (Hotchkiss, 1958) 
continues to hold, but its significance in relation- 
ships in the Haplostephanae-ecorticatae (Sec- 
tion Charopsis of Wood’s revision ) is obscured 
by finding the same number in all species of this 
group, whether monoecious or dioecious, studied 
thus far. 
In the chromosome complements of charo- 
phytes, pairs of chromosomes of similar length 
and form are often seen. In these cases, and as 
noted in the present study in Chara fibrosa ( Fig. 
Ih, i), there seems to be more than a chance 
positioning of homologous chromosomes, sug- 
gesting a high degree of somatic pairing. The 
common appearance of chromosomes in mul- 
tiples of 6 and 9 ( in series of Nitella species ) , 
and in multiples of 14 (in species of Chara), 
indicates the extent and importance of polyploidy 
In this group of "lower” plants. Additional cyto- 
