Howe : Phycological studies 583 



It is of interest to add that the writer has sent photographs of 

 the two Linnaean specimens of Fucus spiralis to Dr. Borgesen, who 

 writes : " One of them is a true Fucus spiralis ( = F. Areschougii 

 Kjellm.), the other is a little dubious, it may be Fucus spiralis, but 

 it also very well may be a form of Fucus inflatus." 



Fucus Poitei Lamour. Diss. 63. pi. 31. f. 2, 3. 1805 



That the Fucus Poitei of Lamouroux was a Laurencia seems to 

 have been suspected first by the keen-eyed Kutzing.* J. Agardh, 

 a little later, judging, as would appear from his discussion, only 

 from Lamouroux's description and figures (and possibly some- 

 what influenced by the fact that Lamouroux in 1813 placed the 

 plant in Chondrus instead of in Laurcucia), referred this Fucus Poitei 

 to the very different genus Gracilaria and expressed his confidence 

 in the correctness of this determination by writing an exclamation 

 mark after the citation. Since that time, so far as we can dis- 

 cover, this determination has not been questioned and " Gracilaria 

 Poitei (Lamour.) J. Ag." has held a place in general monographs 

 and in special papers relating to West Indian algae. 



In the herbarium of Lamouroux at Caen, which we had the 

 privilege of seeing in the summer of 1904 through the courtesy of 

 Professor Octave Lignier, there are in the cover devoted to this 

 species a single small mounted specimen (4 cm. high, 6.5 cm. 

 broad), two loose fragments, a loose slip of paper inscribed 

 " fucus poitei " in the handwriting of Lamouroux, and two draw- 

 ings marked "fig. 3 " and "fig. 4 me ." Fig. 3 was published as 

 f. 2 ; fig. 4 me as f. j. The specimens, which Lamouroux's good 

 diagnosis and rather poor figures allow us to assume, with much 

 confidence, to be parts of the original, belong to the genus Lau- 

 rencia and to the common West Indian species described by J. 

 Agardh under the name L. tuberculosa^ and afterwards figured 

 and described by Kutzing as L. mexicana.% 



New York Botanical Garden. 



* Species Algarum, 857. 1849. 



\ Sp. Alg. 2 : 760. 1852. 



% Tab. I'hyc. 15 : 25. pi. 70. f. c. d. 1865. 



