HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



197 



and irregularity of appearance may be due to tlie 

 curious fact of tliis species never being found in 

 fruit; in fact, the fruit is unknown; and how the 

 species is really propagated, is at present a puzzle 

 for algologists. The only specimens 1 possess were 

 taken at llfracombe many years ago, and so I find 

 was the single specimen which is preserved in the 

 collection of alga; presented by Mrs. GriiSths to the 

 Torquay Museum. 



About ten years ago I went on a dredging expedi- 

 tion to the sheltered bay of Lamlash, in the Isle of 

 Arran, and among the treasures of the deep which 

 I liauled on board, were numerous fine specimens of 

 Bonnemaisonia asparagoides, and the rare and most 

 welcome Stilophora Li/nybycci, which Dr. Harvey was 

 with difficulty persuaded to admit as specifically 

 distinct from S. rhizodes, regarding it rather as a 

 deep-water form of the typical plant. To me it 

 appears to be specifically distinct, not only in its 

 ramification, form, and colour, but in some little 

 differences that exist in the fructification. It is, 

 however, only obtained in deep land-locked bays or 

 harbours, where, like Asperococcus Turneri, another 

 species of the same order, it grows to a large size, 

 but unfortunately is not very regular in its appear- 

 ance, I dredged again very carefully the next 

 season in Lamlash Bay, but I did not obtain a single 

 fragment of the species which were so abundant 

 the former season. I took also during the first 

 dredging bout, one very fine specimen of the very 

 rare Sphacelaria (now ChcetomorpJia) plumosa. It 

 was attached to a stone which came up in the 

 dredge from a depth of 35 fathoms ; but I have 

 never met with this interesting Melanosperm since 

 that time. At Whiting Bay, on the south shore of 

 Arran, I found, two seasons successively, the rare 

 Callithamnion arbiiscula ; but this species is, I 

 believe, exclusively a northern plant, as is also 

 Callithamnion floccosum, a most exquisite alga. It 

 is a native of the Orkneys, but is obtained at 

 Peterhead in fine condition. About eight years ago 

 I received an olive seaweed from a friend at 

 Donegal, which at first puzzled me greatly, for I 

 had not only never taken it, but had never seen 

 anything like it. I succeeded, however, in identify- 

 ing it by means of a plate in a French Journal of 

 Botany in the British Museum, as the extremely 

 rare DesmareMia pinnatinercia. It has since been 

 discovered by Dr, Becker near the Lizard, but 

 hitherto, I am not aware that any other British 

 habitat has been recorded. This is certainly a very 

 remarkable, and I may be permitted to observe, a 

 very original plant ; for although it agrees in 

 structure with wide forms of D. Ugulata, it is un- 

 branched and undivided, the froud being entire, 

 tmd from two or three inches to a foot in length 

 while there is an evident midrib, or distinct vein 

 traversing the frond throughout its whole length, 

 from which spring opposite lateral veins or nerves. 



It would be easy enough for me to multiply 

 instances similar to these I have already described, 

 of what I have long considered a caprice of nature 

 peculiarly characteristic of marine plants, and 

 especially so of seaweeds. I have often pondered 

 as to the cause of the appearance of some species 

 In unlooked-for localities, and then again the sudden 

 disappearance of the same species and their com- 

 plete absence for years. How are these irregu- 

 larities in the economy and growth of seaweeds to 

 be explained ? Perhaps there may be several distinct 

 causes which would, in some degree at least, account 

 for them, and in the first place I will state my firm 

 impression, that the scarcity of some local species 

 in their accustomed places of growth, is due to the 

 rapacity of collectors, some of whom are never 

 satisfied with a share of a rare plant, but must grasp 

 all they can lay hands on; and thus some species are 

 eradicated, at least for a time. Another cause has 

 recently occurred to me ; but this has reference to 

 the sewage question, and I hesitate to say much on 

 such a disagreeable subject. Still I have little 

 doubt that many a delicate plant has been destroyed 

 by contact with various organic abominations, or 

 driven to seek a place of growth in greater depths 

 or purer situations. From this remark it will be 

 perceived that I consider it a disgrace to our civi- 

 lization as well as to our knowledge of how to turn 

 things to their best uses, that any of us should think 

 of pouring impurities of any kind into the glorious 

 ocean, which is of itself the purest and most 

 beautiful thing in creation. 



There is one other circumstance which in con- 

 clusion I will mention, that may possibly account 

 for the change of habitat, if not for the disappear- 

 ance, of some of our delicate filamentous species ; 

 and this circumstance, I may observe, occupied 

 many a conversation between my late friend Dr. 

 Cocks and myself as long ago as the year 1858. For 

 several years previously my. friend had remarked a 

 gradual advance towards low- water mark of some 

 of the Fuel, and almost a corresponding encroach- 

 ment on the shore of several of the Laminariie, the 

 usual place of growth of the latter being in deep 

 water. These facts had been observed by me at 

 Hastings and Brighton, and much later, on the 

 coast of Northumberland, and still more recently 

 at Exmouth, and up the coast towards Budleigh 

 Salterton, and finally here in Torquay. How far 

 these singular changes of habitat among the coarser 

 species may have interfered with the growth of 

 some of the delicate filamentous algae, whose 

 ordinary places of growth are between the tidal 

 limits, it may perhaps be difficult to ascertain. My 

 own professioual occupations admit but of very brief 

 visits to the shore, and I regret to say that, during 

 the last ten years, death has sadly thinned the 

 ranks of scientific algologists ; and thus I have now 

 few opportunities of comparing notes, even by 



