The New Zealand Species of Gigartina. [Read before the
Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, December 5th, 1928,
received by Editor, December 20th, 1928; issued separately, 31st
May, 1929.] The family Gigartinaceae includes a number of genera
of which perhaps ten are to be found on the coasts of New
Zealand. Of these the most abundant, both in the number of
species and in quantity, is Gigartina. Immense masses of members
of this genus frequently fringe the rocks on more or less
exposed coasts about low-water mark. Elsewhere many species of
the family have been found to have some economic value; but so
far little use of them has been made commercially in New
Zealand. Thus carageen (Irish Moss), a favourite remedy for
colds, is prepared in quantity from Chondrus crispus and
Gigartina mamillosa; and though we have neither of these species
in New Zealand, yet we have others so closely allied to them,
that no doubt they could be similarly employed. Indeed they have
frequently been so employed locally, but so far