liil
i
i'
ir
Î 1 .
.'fíij
í!-r:
-NI '
i ' i
H!
f ,1
f. j»«
Tçll 4
r st i«smj
i i - 1 , 1
f •
plane, and it often depends on the smoothness of the water how long they may remam so. This variety is abundant
eveiywhere in the Antarctic seas.
Variety y. atigmtifroM. The character, dratra from the tenmty of the vesicles, is utterly unsatisfactory, being
attributahlo to the drying of the specimen, and the locality of the live plant. Besides the Antarctic habitats o°f
this variety, it has been found in Chih, New Zealand, and the Indian Ocean.
Varieties t. Ivmrmm, and f. manimnacm. If any fom of this genus deseiwes specific distinction it is sm-cly
the noble one we have designated e. luxurians ; and yet permanent characters, cRstinguishiiig it from pyrifera, were
vainly sought iu plants gathered on the shores of Berkeley Sound. Both there and at Cape Horn these two’states
inhabited deep and stiR waters, where, as might he expected, the Macrocystis would acquire its greatest development,
where its substance woidd be most membranous, its stems most slender, aud the vesicles broad with thiu walls,
and the base of the fi-oiid broadest. We have seen no specimens of these varieties except wliat were brought home
by tbe Antai-ctic Expedition.
Variety r,. IlumboUlii, at fii-st sight appears different, and the specimens found on the outer shores of the
Falklands we once thought might belong to a distmct species. The rounded form of the vesicles, however, which
affords the main character, is not constant on specimens collected in the Coral Islands hy Captain Becche’y. It
has been gathered at various places along the west coast of South America, from Cape Horn to the Equator, and
far westwai-d in tbe Pacific amongst the Coral Islands.
With regard to other states, which we have not seen, the most remarkable is the M. Orliynyana of Montagne
(Sert. Patagón, p. 12. 1.1.). which has the vesicles remarkably lengthened and the leaf attenuated at the base above
the vesicle into a distmct petiole. The M. latifolia, Bory. is intermediate hetween om- c. luxurians and pynfera.
M. tenuifoUa, Post, and Ruppr., is apparently between M. pyrifera and M. zostermfolia. The charaetei- of M.plaui-
caulis is founded on the compression of the stem, produced by drying, and we have therefore quoted it as a
synonjTn.
In thus bringing together under one, the ten species which have been described by five authors, of whom hardly
one has ever seen even the genus in a living state, we are only taking advantage of opportunities which a long
residence in the Southern Hemisphere has afforded. Without studying these plants on the coasts they inhabit, it k
impossible to judge of the influence of local canses on their plastic forms. We venture to say that few botanists
in Europe have seen even tolerable specimens from one single plant of this Alya, such, we mean, as give a fair
idea of the differences between the leaves and bladders, along, perhaps, 800 feet of stem, with the submerged
fructifying fronds from the root. Out of some thirty specimens brought home by ten different coRectors 7 d
preserved in the Hookerian Herbarium previous to our visit to the seas wliich M. pyrifera inhabits, not one
conveys any notion of the variations which even a solitary individual can assume.
The fructification of this plant appears to be produced only on the young newly-formed submerged leaves,
where it forms large irregular brown patches or sori, causing the frond to separate into two laminæ, as in lessonia.
The spores are fusiform, first divided into four, each afterwards breaking np into as many sporidia. Under a high
power the surface of the fertile frond is seen generally to be covered with anastomosing raised lines of a dark colour,
on which the spores are placed; the spaces between are pale and transparent, We have not noticed spores,
like what are figured hy Agardh (1. c. t. 28. f. 11), but plenty of the kind he represents at f. 10‘ of the samé
plate, though not contained in sporangia. These, magnified as highly as Ms f, 10‘, are evidently divided, as in
D'Urvillcea. The grannies also, which occur abundantly with the spores, are surrounded by a hyaline border, and
divided into two to four sporidia; we suppose them to be merely small spores.
It is seldom that the Mstory of an Alga is Ukely to afford interest or amusement to the general reader, unless
it be a positively valuable plant in an economic point of view. Like the Sargasso-weed of the Tropics, however,
the Macrocystis is so conspicuous, and from its wandering habits, often occurs so unexpectedly, that the’ attentioii
of our earliest voyagers has been directed to it, and we arc consequently led back by our enquiries into its first
463
Falklands, e tc ]
discovery, to the annals of those perils and privations whieh have ever marked tho progi-css of discovery or cnterprize
in the stormy sens of the south. “ NihU vilior Alga ”, is a saying more trite than trae. and one which a seaman can
never use; for these weeds often prove Ms nnerring guide towards land, as they surely are to the dn-eetion of the
currents; or become of more importance stiff in the case of the present plant; for it is, where growing, no only
the infallible sign of sunken rocks. Imt every rock that can prove dangerous to a ship is conspicuously buoyed by its
slender stem and green fronds, and we may safely afflrm that without its presence many channels woidd be impracticable.
and numerous harbours in the south closed to our adventurous mamiers.
The first notice of the Macrocystis, with wHeh we are aeqnainted, is of so eai-Iy a date as the middle of the
16th centuiy, and oeciirs in a copy of sailing directions for mariners, ivith the title “ A Ruttier from the River of
Plate to the Streight of Magelana ”, and forms part of “ A special note concerning the cm-rents of the sea between
the Cape of Buena Espcranza and the coast of Brazilia, given by a French pUot before Su- John Yorke, Knt., before
Sebastian Cabote, whieh pilot had frequented the shores of Brazilia eighteen voyages,” (Hakluyt, ed. 2. vol.iv.
p 219) In describing the above-mentioned route, after passing Cape Sta. Martha, the trusty pdofs dn-eetion to
the mariner is to “ goe S.W. by W, until he be in 40 degrees, where he shall find great store of wecdes winch come
from the coast ”; and again, in pm-suing the voyage after entering the Straits. “ if you see beds of weede, take heed
of them and keep off from them.” Now, both tho position assigned to the great masses of floatmg weed and the
value of those wliieh arc attached in denoting Mdden dangers, are conclusive as appljnng to the Macrocystis.
These dii-eetions bear no date; but the diseoveiy of the Strait of Magalhaens was hi 1520, and the death of
Sebastian Cabote took place in 1556, so that we have snffieient proof that this plant attracted the attention of
the earliest Antaretic voyagers in the longitudes of Cape Horn; though it may have been noticed previously on Ihe
southern extreme of Africa or the China seas. Nor can we wonder that the attention ot onr forefathers shoidd have
been so early called to it, when even now it is of tho first importance that the look-out man should use Ms utmost
rigilance to detect, and promptitude to report, tills weed, ou approaoMug any of the straits and boys ot the
shores of Tierea del Fuego and simUm- latitudes. In the latest voyages that have been published, those of Capts.
Foster lüiig, and Fitz-Roy, we find a constant watch tor the “ kelp ” to have been kept, and caution used to avoid
the “ loored” pieces, together with iiistructions how to distinguish them from those which are floating.
The eai-liest scientific notice wliieli we find ot it. consists of a rude figure and description in Banliiii-s “ Ilistoria
Plantai-iim ” published in 1651, whore it is designated “ Fucus mariims criiiitus.” In the ycai- 1764. the Irciicli
Naviretoi- Bongaim-iUe, fell in with the Maerocystk, Lat. 42° S., Long. 67° W., and a long description appeared
in 1771 ’by Don Pernetty, the Mstoriogi-apher of that voyage, together with a sketch, when it ivas published
as a nati’vo also of the Falkland Islands. (Pernetty Toy., vol. ii. p. 67. t. ix. f. 5.) About the same period (1771)
épecimens ivere collected by Emmanuel KoeMg (of Bale) on his voyage to India, and transmitted to Limioens,
with this observation, “ Habitat iu oceaiio zEtMopico e profnndissimo mai-i sæpe eiiatans msulasqne quasi fomians,”
(MSS )- it was then published iu 1771, as luonspyriferus (Linn. Mimtiss. p. 311,) with the additional remark of
“ maxiiéus forte omnium Fuconim,” We are not sm-e of the precise habitat of Kamig’s specimens; but by
“ occaniis ÆtMopious” he probably alluded to the seas of the Cape ot Good Hope, which lie doubled on Ins
way to India, and wbere this weed abounds.
So i-cmarkablc a plant w-as not likely to escape the notice ot Cook, and especially of the iUiistrious eompanioii
ot that navio-atoi-’s fii-st voyage, and we accordingly find in his narrative repeated allusions to it. It engaged the
attention of Banks when entering the Straits of Lc Maire in 1769, and frequently afterwards in the cooler latitudes
éf the southera ocean. To Mm we oive the first account of its gigantic dimensions. Captain Cook says, on
the authority of Banks and Solander, who called it Fucus giganteus, that the stems attain a length of 120 feet.
That these dimensions arc considerably under the mark there is little doubt ; though the report that specimens
have been mcasm-cd upwards of 1000 feet is perhaps as mnch of an e.xaggcralion. Still it must be rcmcmbci-ed
that, provided the water be smooth and ot sufficient extent, there are no impediments to the almost indefinite
tips