FalMands, etc.] FLORA ANTARCTICA. 463 



discovery, to the annals of those perils and privations which have ever marked the progress of discovery or enterprise 

 in the stormy seas of the south. " Nihil vilior Alga ", is a saying more trite than true, and one which a seaman can 

 never use ; for these weeds often prove his unerring guide towards land, as they surely are to the direction of the 

 currents ; or become of more importance still in the case of the present plant ; for it is, where growing, not oidy 

 the infallible sign of sunken rocks, but every rock that can prove dangerous to a ship is conspicuously buoyed by its 

 slender stem and green fronds, and we may safely affirm that without its presence many channels would be imprac- 

 ticable, and numerous harbours in the south closed to our adventurous mariners. 



The first notice of the Macncystis, with which we are acquainted, is of so early a date as the middle of the 

 16th century, and occurs in a copy of sailing directions for mariners, with the title " A Rut tier from the River of 

 Plate to the Streight of Magelana ", and forms part of " A special note concerning the currents of the sea between 

 the Cape of Buena Esperanza and the coast of Brazilia, given by a French pilot before Sir John Yorke, Knt., before 

 Sebastian Cabote, which 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 pilot's direction to 

 the mariner is to " goe S.W. by W. until he be in 40 degrees, where he shall find great store of weedes which come 

 from the coast"; and again, in pursuing the voyage after entering the Straits, "if you see beds of weede, take heed 

 of them and keep off from them." Now, both the position assigned to the great masses of floating weed and the 

 value of those which are attached in denoting hidden dangers, are conclusive as applying to the Macrocyst/s. 

 These directions bear no date; but the discovery of the Strait of Magalhaens was in 1520, and the death of 

 Sebastian Cabote took place in 1556, so that we have sufficient proof that this plant attracted the attention of 

 the earliest Antarctic voyagers in the longitudes of Cape Horn ; though it may have been noticed previously on the 

 southern extreme of Africa or the China seas. Nor can we wonder that the attention of our forefathers should have 

 been so early called to it, when even now it is of the first importance that the look-out man should use his utmost 

 vigilance to detect, and promptitude to report, this weed, on approaching any of the straits and bays of the 

 shores of Tierra del Fuego and similar latitudes. In the latest voyages that have been published, those of Capts. 

 Foster, King, and Fitz-Roy, we find a constant watch for the " kelp " to have been kept, and caution used to avoid 

 the "moored" pieces, together with instructions how to distinguish them from those which are floating. 



The earliest scientific notice which we find of it, consists of a rude figure and description in Bauhin's " Historia 

 Plantarum," published in 1651, where it is designated " Fucus marinus erinitus." In the year 1764, the French 

 Navigator, Bougainville, fell in with the Macrocystis, Lat. 42° S., Long. 57° W., and a long description appeared 

 in 1771, by Don Pernetty, the historiographer of that voyage, together with a sketch, when it was published 

 as a native also of the Falkland Islands. (Pernetty Voy., vol. ii. p. 67. t. ix. f. 5.) About the same period (1771) 

 specimens were collected by Emmanuel Koenig (of Bale) on his voyage to India, and transmitted to Linnaeus; 

 with this observation, " Habitat in oceano iEthiopico e profundissimo mari ssepe enatans insulasque quasi formans," 

 (MSS.); it was then published in 1771, as Fucus pyri/erus (Linn. Mantiss. p. 311,) with the additional remark of 

 " maxiinus forte omnium Fucorum." We are not sure of the precise habitat of Kamig's specimens ; but by 

 " oceanus jEthiopicus" he probably alluded to the seas of the Cape of Good Hope, which he doubled on his 

 way to India, and where this weed abounds. 



So remarkable a plant was not likely to escape the notice of Cook, and especially of the illustrious companion 

 of that navigator's first voyage, and we accordingly find in his narrative repeated allusions to it, It engaged the 

 attention of Banks when entering the Straits of Le Maire in 1769, and frequently afterwards in the cooler latitudes 

 of the southern ocean. To him we owe 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 are considerably under the mark there is little doubt ; though the report that specimens 

 have been measured upwards of 1000 feet is perhaps as much of an exaggeration. Still it must be remembered 

 that, provided the water be smooth and of sufficient extent, there are no impediments to the almost indefinite 



