A new species, Potentilla koreana H.Ikeda & Im, is described. Potentilla koreana, found in the central and the southern part of the Korean Peninsula, is similar to P. freyniana Bornm. and P. riparia Murata, but differs from P. freyniana in having rhizomes not thickened and lower bract on peduncle with degenerated lamina, and from P. riparia in having boat-shaped scaly leaves on rhizome. The chromosome number of P. koreana is 2n=14, diploid level in this genus.

Two green algae were collected from tree bark and coastal water. One isolated from tree bark is solitary and unicellular, and has network ribs on the cell wall. This alga is morphologically similar to Coelastrella vacuolata (Shihira & Krauss) Hegewald & Hanagata, but differs from it in the shape of cells and visible ornamentation on the cell wall in light microscopy. The other isolated from coastal water is in colony, and has a meridional ribs on the cell wall. The gross morphology of the second alga resembles that of Coelastrella multistriata (Trenkwalder) var. corcontica Kalina & Puncocharova, but differs from it in habitat. The phylogenetic trees constructed with sequence data of 18S rRNA gene showed that the second alga is distant from Co. multistriata var. corcontica. This alga is placed in the subgenus Acutodesmus of the genus Scenedesmus, and forms monophyletic relationship together with Scenedesmus rubescens (Dangeard) Kessler & al. and S. dissociatus (Verses & Trainor) Hegewald & Hanagata. Therefore, these two algae are described as new species, Coelastrella saipanensis Hanagata and Scenedesmus littoralis Hanagata, respectively.

The Umbelliferae in Japan has been classified into 30 genera and 90 species. Taxonomy of these species has been treated by several authors. However, the scientific names of some taxa are different by the authors, so I attempt to sort out the right scientific names of these species and genera in this paper. The genus Spuriopimpinella Kitag. is united to the genus Pimpinella L., and the genera Tilingia Regel and Dystaenia Kitag. to the genus Ligusticum L. It is clear that Angelica sect. Acutilobi with 7 species is an endemic section of the Japanese Islands. In this paper a key to Japanese genera is provided and 11 genera are treated; Hydrocotyle, Centella, Sanicula, Torilis, Anthriscus, Osmorhiza, Pleurospermum, Bupleurum, Cryptotaenia, Pternopetalum and Aegopodium.

Ophiopogon reversus C.C.Huang, so far recorded from Hainan Island and western Guangxi (southern China), has also been found in Hongkong (China), Taiwan, and Yonaguni Island of the southern Ryukyus (Japan). Specimens of this species have hitherto often been assigned to other species such as O. japonicus (Thunb.) Ker Gawl., O. jaburan (Siebold) Lodd. and O. planiscapus Nakai. Ophiopogon reversus is regarded as closely allied to both O. japonicus and O. jaburan. It is noteworthy that within this genus only these three species have diurnal flowers. A key to these three species is provided.

Three anthocyanins and five flavonols in the flowers of Chimonanthus praecox var. praecox and C. praecox var. grandiflorus f. concolor were isolated. Anthocyanins were characterized as cyanidin 3-O-glucoside (chrysanthemin), acylated cyanidin 3-O-glucoside and cyanidin glycoside. Flavonols were identified as quercetin 3-O-rutinoside (rutin), quercetin 3-O-glucoside (isoquercitrin), kaempferol 3-O-rutinoside (nicotiflorin), quercetin 3-O-rutinoside-7-O-glucoside and quercetin itself, by comparisons of PC and HPLC data with authentic specimens, NMR and UV spectra, and characterization of the complete and partial acid hydrolysates. Though the major flavonoid of the species was named "meratin" and regarded as quercetin 3-O-diglucoside, this has been revealed to be quercetin 3-O-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→6)-β-D-glucopyranoside, namely "rutin" based on ¹H- and ¹³C-NMR spectra.