1925] SetcheU-Gardner: MeUtnophijceac 625 



Postelsia palmaeformis Rupr. 



Plate 69 



Holdfast of stout, blunt, branched hapteres; stipe stout, smooth 

 and g^lossy, elastic though rigid, cylindrical, tapering slightly upward, 

 hollow, 4-6 dm. high, 1.5-3 cm. diam., bearing at its tip numerous 

 solid, cylindrical, dichotomous branches ; blades terminating the small 

 branches, falcate, 100-150 on a plant, 15-24 cm. long, produced by 

 longitudinal splitting in the transition region at their bases, with 

 deep, parallel, longitudinal grooves on either side, in which the sori 

 are developed ; color a rich olive brown. 



Growing only on rocks exposed to the heavy action of the waves. 

 Extending from the southern end of Vancouver Island to Lion Rock, 

 San Luis Obispo, California. 



Ruprecht, Neue Pflanzen, 1852, p. 19 (75), pis. 6 and 8 ; MacMillan, 

 Kelps of Juan de Fuca, 1902, pp. 213 and 217 ; Setchell and Gardner, 

 Alg. N.W. Amer, 1903, p. 268 ; Setchell, Kelps of U. S. and Alaska, 

 1912a, p. 158; Collins, Holden and Setchell, Phyc. Bor.-Amer. 

 (Exsicc), no. XXXVIII and no. 131; Tilden, Amer. Alg., no. 341; 

 Farlow, Anderson and Eaton, Alg. Exsicc. Amer.-Bor., no. 113. Vir- 

 ginm Palma-Maris Areschoug, Oefvers. Kongl. Vet.-Akad. Forhandl., 

 1853, p. 147, Flora, 1855, p. 652. Postelsia calif ornica Guignard, App. 

 Mucif. Lam., 1892, p. 41. 



This plant, in many ways remarkable, was first brought to the 

 attention of phycologists by Wosnessenski, who found it growing on the 

 exposed shore of a small island at the entrance to Bodega Bay, Cali- 

 fornia. It was known to the Indians of that region as Kakgunu- 

 chale, according to Ruprecht. It is everywhere known today as the 

 Sea Palm, owing to the close resemblance of more or less extensive 

 clusters of these singularly beautiful plants to miniature groves of 

 palms as seen in the distance along ocean shores. 



It has accustomed itself to growing only on rocks exposed to the 

 very heaviest action of the waves. It mainly inhabits the middle of the 

 littoral belt, but in certain localities in which the waves are accustomed 

 to beating high, they may grow at or even above the general high-tide 

 level. They are annual plants. 



Postelsia palmaeformis was first published by Ruprecht {loc. dt.), 

 who gave a very excellent illustration of the three specimens collected 

 by Wosnessenski. This paper was published separately in 1852 and 

 afterwards in Memoirs Imp. Acad. St. Petersburg in 1855 (ser. 6, 



