! 'i: ;
face, are very conspicuous. As tlie growth of the plant proceeds, the
stem becomes insensibly flattened, widened, and elongated, the little dilatation
swells into a hollow bulb-like cavity, and throws out short
thick radicles from its surface, while the original root is concealed by,
and does not project beyond the bulb, which has in fact inclosed it ;
the frond in the mean time is cleft into segments, and increases in size
and thickness. In the mature plant, the bulb is roundish, several inches
in diameter, rough all over with short thick papillie. The stem is
from eight inches to four feet long, two to four inches wide, the margin
much waved and curled, especially towards the base ; at the top
dilating suddenly into a roundish or reniform frond, two to twelve feet
long, and two to several feet broad, deeply cleft into segments of various
sizes. Fructification composed of oblong vertical seeds intermixed
with filaments, forming dense continuous masses in the thickened
waved margin of the stem, and sometimes spreading over tbe
whole stem, and even the lower part of the frond.
Substance coriaceous and tough. Colour olivaceous or greenish-
brown, glossy, the part bearing the fructification reddish, darker when
dry. It does not adhere to paper.
M. Bory de St Vincent, in his article on the genus Laminaria in
the Dictionaire Classique d'Histoire Naturelle, considers the Fucus
bulbosus of Linnæus as distinct fi om tbe F. bulbosus of Turner, and
has named the latter L. Turneri. He rests his characters of tbe former
on a thick, compressed, elongated stem, terminating in a conical,
flabelliform frond, split into long segments;—of the latter, on a short
much dilated stem, terminating in a fan-shaped frond, very open, or
reflected laterally, and in its proportions broader than long. I will not
take upon me to assert that there may not be two species confounded
together ; but having L- digitata before my eyes, which I know to
differ in an equally striking degree, I am induced, in the absence of
decisive and authentic specimens, to refrain from adopting M. Bory’s
' species. In this proceeding I am supported by the experience of Mrs
Griffiths, of whom it is scarcely necessary for me to observe, that few
individuals at home or abroad are more practically conversant with marine
Algce. She has, at my request, examined this species in all its
stages, and bears witness to the extreme variation occurring in every
part of the plant, depending chiefly upon situation. The length of
the stem is in proportion to the depth of the water. Mr Brodie
states (in Mr Turners work), that the plant, when expanded, occupies
nearly the whole of a circle of thirty-two inches diameter. But a plant
recently measured by Mrs Griffiths, will give a more correct idea
of tbe immense size of this species, which has been known to form a
sufficient load for a man’s shoulders. This specimen was obtained
from deep water, near Torquay, and, according to my kind correspondent,
was a flourishing young plant. The original fibrous root was
perfect ; tbe bulb which had formed above it was about a foot in diameter
; the stem flat at the edges, about three feet in length, the
upper half occupied by tbe young waved margin or furbelow ; the
frond was entire for about a foot and a half, and then split into an immense
number of segments, from a quarter of an inch to six or eight
inches in width, and six of more feet in length. When spread out
upon the ground, it formed nearly a circle of at least twelve feet in
diameter.
In examining tbe pores on tbe surface of the frond, I had occasion
to observe a curious, and I believe um-ecoïded fact. The filaments
which appear to issue fi-om the cavity of the pores, in reality fringe the
margin, and are merely free terminations of the longitudinal filaments
entering into the structure of the frond. This is quite obvious in very
young specimens, in which the frond is so tender that the filaments
may be traced, and even removed from tbe margin of the pore to a
considerable distance.
The substitution of the large hollow bulb for the primaiy root, is
evidently intended as a means of furnishing the increased support which
the enormous frond soon requires. The extended surface of the bulb
putting forth powerful radicles from every part, when requisite, enables
the mature plant to defy the winter-storm. It is the largest of the
European species, and is known in many parts of England by the
names of Sea-furbelovos and Furbelowed Hangers. Where it abounds,
it forms an excellent manure for land, and in the Orkney and the
Scilly Isles, it supplies the kelp-furnace. It is rare on the eastern side
of the kingdom.
'I I 1
I .
* * Frond undivided.
.3. L a m in a r ia l a t i f o l ia .
Stem short cylindrical expanding into an ovate-elliptical submem-
branaceous undivided frond.
Laminaria latifolia, A g . S p . Alg. v . 1. p . 119. S y s t. Alg. p . 27
Fucus saccharinus, v a r . latissirmis, T u r n . H is t. F u r . v . 3. p.
Vìva ma.rima, G u n n . F I . N o r v . 2. t. 7* L 5.