HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE- GOSSIP. 



145 



BRITISH laminari&e-a suggestion. 



BY MRS. MERRIFIELD, BRIGHTON. 



H E season for 

 collecting sea- 

 weeds having 

 commenced, I 

 venture to direc* 

 the attention of 

 algologists to the 

 Laminariese, some 

 species of which, 

 new to this country, may 

 possibly be found on our 

 coasts. 



Besides the well-known 

 native species, the stems 

 of Laminaria longicrucis, 

 a species common on the 

 Greenland and North 

 American coasts, are some- 

 times cast ashore on the 

 north - western coasts of 

 these islands as well as 

 on those of Jutland and 

 Sweden, and occasionally 

 fronds of a very large 

 Laminaria are found on the shores of Scotland. 

 Professor Agardh, the celebrated Swedish algologist, 

 thinks that the last-mentioned plant may be the 

 gigantic L. caperata* a native of the seas around 

 Spitzbergen. I possess a fragment, given to me by 

 the late Mrs. Gatty, which is 18 inches in breadth. 

 I have also a young frond of Alaria from Bam- 

 borough, which Prof. Agardh says looks like A. 

 Pjjlaii, which inhabits the coasts of Greenland, 

 Newfoundland, and Iceland. The Professor has also 

 specimens of A. musafolia (formerly considered as 

 a variety of A. esculenta) from Britain and Prance. 

 These instances are certainly indications that some 

 at least of the above-mentioned, and even of other 



* L. caperata was formerly considered a variety of L. 

 saccharina. 



No. 127. 



species of the Laminarian family, may be found on 

 our coasts, and I would suggest to algologists that 

 their search for them may be rewarded by success. 

 The genus Laminaria is extensive. In his 

 " Species, Genera, et Ordines Algarum," A gardh 

 describes seventeen species ; and in a recent Essay 

 on the Laminariese and Eucacese of Greenland, he 

 describes several new species. Harvey, also, in the 

 " Nereis-boreale Americana," suggests that, of the 

 numerous specimens of Laminaria which he found 

 on the American coasts, several might possibly con- 

 stitute distinct species. Of the genus Alaria, 

 Agardh enumerates five species from Greenland and 

 Spitzbergen ; and of these it seems not improbable 

 that three species may be found on the northern 

 and Atlantic shores of these islands, and on the 

 north-west of Prance. 



But there is much difficulty in identifying species 

 which bear so great a resemblance to each other. 

 I would therefore suggest that, when individuals 

 are met with which appear to belong to other than 

 our native species, they should be submitted, for 

 determination, to competent authority. ] 



In the meantime I beg to offer a few remarks on 

 the points to which collectors should direct their 

 attention. 



As no algologist will venture to determine a 

 species from the inspection of a single example, 

 unless of very strongly -marked forms, it will be 

 necessary to collect several specimens— fruitful ones 

 especially— of the same plant for examination. 

 These specimens should be of all ages, so as to 

 make a complete series. 



I cannot do better here than quote a passage 

 from Prof. Agardh's Essay, to which I have before 

 referred : — 



" The difficulty of characterizing the Laminariete 

 is actually very great, not only on account of the 

 great resemblance between them, but also because 

 the species change their aspect during different 

 periods of their development, and this occurs most 



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