i i l
i 11
H iB . Hermite Island, Cape H o rn ; on leaves of Viola tridentata.
Amphigena, iranotifoi-mis. Mycelium valde cbscurum, e filamentis panels brevibus parce ramosis. Peritleeia
margine tcnm kcerato membranáceo
Neither have I been able to detect frnetifieation in tbis plant, but the genus is I beheve certain.
P late CLXIV. Fig. I V . - l , Viola attacked with Fungus of the natural size; 2, leaf of ditto and Funreis ■
3, penthecram; 4, portion of edge of ditto :—highly i '" ’
^ 3. Astbkina B a n o in ii, Berk.; epiphylla, macnlis parvis orbicularibus e fibriUis radiantibus articulatis
f r™ ™ fr'T*<!®frs centralibus margine laciniato. (Tab. CLXIV.
H ab. Cape Tree Montes; on Azara lanceolata; C. Barwin, Esq.
Maculae epiphyUae, orbicidares. A-1 liu. latan, e fibrillis radiantibus retieulatisque, partim e margine peritheoii
parhm e superiiem mfenore enatae, breviter articulatas, aut omnino simpKees. P e rim d a primum hreg,darla, sub-
e evata, demum depressa. margine laciniato laciniis denticulatis. rtsd ut in reliqaus speciebus globosi; sporidia
oblonga, biloculata,
Apparently different from A. Azarm, Lev., in its perithecia, whieh ar-e not depressed in the centre, as in that
species. Unfortunately I have no opportunity of comparing them. The perithecium. both here and in Asterina
microscopica, splits from the centre in a radiating manner when shghtly pressed.
P late CLXIV. Jig. n . - l , Asterina Darwinii, Berk., on leaves of Azara lanceoUla, of the natm-al size -
2 perithecia and mycelium ; a, cuticle of matrix ; 5, incipient perithecium ; e, curious processes given off from threads
o fm y c e li^ ; 3 fibres of mycelimn; 4. portion of border of peritheeinm; 6, processes on tlireads of mycelium ;
6, asci; 7, sporidia;—all very highly
19. EUEOTIUM, L k.
1. EmtoTiUM herlariorum, L k ., Ohs. vol. i. p. 29. f. 44.
H ab. On biscuit on board the 'E r e b u s ’, Jan, 3rd, 1841.
The sporangia in the specimens before me, which are very scanty, are almost destitute of flocci, but accompanied
by an abimdant tawny mycelium, thus confirming the opinion of Fries and Corda, that Eurotiuu epixylon is not
reaUy a distmct species. I cannot, however, think with Corda that it has the slightest affinity with Phisarnm
The moi-phosis has not at present heen traced, and till this is done it appears better to let it remain where Fries has
placed It, m the neighbourhood of Mucor.
The peridium is lined with a stratum of gelatinous cells, which vanish in a great measm-e as the plant approaches
matmity. The flocci m Kze. and Sehm., n. 83. are rough and dark, bnt I find great variation both of surface and
colour.
LV. ALGiìl, L.
1. D’UEV ILLiEA, Borg.
1. D ’U evilla3a u h lu , Bory, in Baperreg Vog. Bot. p. 65. 1 .1 et 2. f. 2. Fl. Antarct. P t. 1. p. 167,
Laminaria cmpaistipes, Montagne in Vog. B'OrUgng, Bot. Crgpt. p. 11. t, 2.
FaUdands, etc?) F LO EA ANTAECTICA. 4 5 5
H a b. Tierra del Fuego, the Falkland Islands, and Kerguelen’s Land ; very abundant a t half-tide mark
and below it ; also in th e open ocean, between lat. 45° and 55° S., reaching th e 6 5 th degree of south latitude
in the meridian of New Zealand.
This, the Lessonia, and Macrocystis are the three most remarkable Algoe of the Antarctic regions, especially on
account of their size ; the present exceeding any sea-weed, except the Lessonia and the Ecklonia buccinalis of the
Cape of Good Hope, in bulk ; while the Macrocystis, to wliich we shall afterwards allude, is the longest vegetable
production known.
The nearest affinity of D’ was considered, in the ‘ London Journal of Botany’ (vol.ii. p. 325), to be
with Eimanthalia of the Northern and Arctic seas, an opinion to which one of us was led by observing how, in habit
and locahty, these species represented each other in the opposite Polar oceans. Wahlenberg, Boiy de St. Vincent and
Grevihe, all regard the curious pezizæfonn organ of Himanthalia as the frond, and the deciduous strap-shaped
lacimæ as receptacles, which view is also maintained in the ‘ Phycologia Britannica’ (t. Ixxviii.) Lyugbye (the founder
of the species) and Agardh, on the other hand, pronounce the frond to be swollen at the base into a bladdery stipes,
fm-nished with strap-shaped laciniæ, over whose surface the conceptacles are scattered as in D Urvillæa ; and in
XipJiophora, a genus (as pointed out by Montagne) neai-ly alhed to the present, and which represents it in a lower
latitude of the Southern Ocean. In the ‘ London Jom-nal of Botany’ the true analogy to the bladder of HimantJialia
was sought iu the trumpet-shaped stipes of Ecklonia buccinalis, but in that plant the growth of stipes aud frond
proceeds from the earliest stage, pari-passu, whilst the bladder of Himanthalia is fully developed before the straps
appear.
We have nowhere seen a good representation of the beautiful cellular tissue of D Urmlloea utilis, which, in
its fresh state, is so régulai- and large as to resemble perfectly in size and stmcture one of the two layers of cells
found in honey-comb. Most of the specimens brought to Eurojie are injured by pressure, which can however
hardly have caused the total obhteration of stnicture which M. Bory’s plate represents ; the most accurate figure we
know is given in the beautiful plate accompanying M. Decaisne’s ‘Essay on tbe fi-uctiiication of Algæ’ .
The spores of this and the fohoiviug species are divided into four, and we cannot doubt hut that this division
is followed hy the complete breaking up of the organ into four sporules, whose future germination resembles that
described by MM. Decaisne and Thuret in Eucus serratus (‘Annales des Sc. Nat. ’ Ser. 3. vol. iii. p. 10. t. 2). The
conceptacles contain probably both antheridia and spores, so far as we can judge fi*om di-awiugs taken from the living
plant, though at the time these bodies were uot recogmzed as belonging to two différents classes of organs.
The northem limit of B'Urvillcea ivill probably be found to be the latitude of Valparaiso, or 33° S., on the
West coast of South America, and 50° S., on the opposite shores of the same continent. In New Zealand it attains
the parallel of 40°, but whether it inhabits any of the shores of Tasmania, or is there represented by the Fucus
potatorum, is a question we cannot answer. Though cai-ried bj* the cm-rents along the ocean to the south of the
Cape of Good Hope, (for it was collected in that meridian in the 51st degree, floating in the open ocean,) it does
not appear to inhabit or be cast upon the southern extremity of Africa ; and in the Indian Ocean, again, its range is
not likely to he north of the Islets of Prince Edward’s, the Crozet gi-oup and Kerguelen’s Land. Ou the other hand,
the south latitude it attains is probably regulated by the position of the Pack Ice, to within a few miles of which
it was traced by the Antarctic Expedition, on one occasion, south of New Zealand to the 65th degree, which is
probably its “ ultima Thule ” in any longitude ; for it was there the last trace of vegetation. I t grows invariably
accompanied by the Macrocystis pyrifera.
Bory de St. Vincent states, on the excellent authority of D’Hrville, that the poorer classes of "West Chili use
this plant for food, and that when made into soup it is vei-y palateable, being sweet and mucilaginous. In Kerguelen’s
Land its enormous and weighty fronds, sometimes ten feet long, and almost too heavy for a man to lift, form the
only shelter for the shells and soft animals, wliich there find a refuge from the flocks of aquatic birds that cover the
shores and follow the receding tide.