Notes on tlic Morphology of the Fncacetf. 31 



Dr. Langsdorff gave him at the same time a drawing of the plant in 

 its natural condition by Prof. Mertens, which Turner incorporated 

 along with the description of the new plant, and named it Fitcus 

 Langsdorfii in honour of its finder. 



Tilesius, a companion of Dr. Langsdorff on this expedition, also 

 gathered and brought home a specimen which he gave to C. Agardh. 

 A preliminary description of it under the name of Fucns Tilesii, was 

 published by Agardh in 1812. (Alg. Dec. I.) 



In his Species Algannn, p. 78 (1823), he described the plant more 

 fully and transferred it to the genus Cystoscira. 



Finally, in 1830, Greville founded for it a new genus, Coccophora 

 (Synopsis, p. 34), retaining Turner's specific name Langsdorfii. 



The specimen in the British Museum is from the Shuttleworth 

 Herbarium, dated 1830. The plant bears out the description given by 

 Turner, being of a dull black colour in the dry condition. 



Coccophora Langsdorfii is one of the most highly organized of the 

 Fuel, recalling Sargassum with its leaves and berries. It has a central 

 axis or stem from which lateral members are given off, according to 

 Turner : ' alternate and separated by intervals of an inch, or standing 

 close together, and not uncommonly two or three rising together from the 

 same point, about half a foot long, and each swollen at its base into a 

 small bulb.' This latter statement I have been unable to verify. 



These branches from the main stem (plate IX., fig. i) are spirally 

 clothed with short, sessile, entire, tapering leaves, which, towards the 

 apex, are replaced by a raceme of berry-like hollow receptacles, each 

 borne on a short stalk. This transformation of leaves into special organs 

 for fruit-bearing divides CoccopJwra from the Cystoseirce, and places it in 

 another group between Cystophora and Scaberia. 



The vegetative tissue is very simple. There is a central cylinder of 

 long empty cells, with very small lumen, owing to the great thickness of 

 the cell-wall. Towards the outside the cells are shorter and broader with 

 thinner walls, thus forming a sort of cortex, and the epidermis is of 

 brick-shaped cells. This layer and the outer cortical cells are filled 

 with dark brown contents (plate IX., figs. 3 and 4). 



The tissue of the leaves is continuous with that of the main axis ; 

 there is a middle strand of long thick-walled cells and wings of large 

 rectangular or polygonal cells, clothed with an epidermis similar to that 

 of the stem. 



The hollow receptacles have an uniform tissue of comparatively thick- 

 walled cortical cells, which are richer in contents than those of the 

 vegetative tissue. The conceptacles are numerous and crowded, and arc 



