180 EKYTHEA. 



The type specimen, obtained by Dr. Giistav Eisen, 

 was described by Areschoug in the Botaniska Notiser for 

 1876, as Ner^eocystis gigantea. In an article in the same 

 journal for 1881, Areschoug separated it from N. Luetkeana, 

 making it the type of a new genus, Pelagophycus. The full 

 description of Pelagophycus giganteus was not given, how- 

 ever, until three years later, in the fifth part of the " Obser- 

 vationes Pliycologicse." A. B. Hervey has described it, in his 

 popular book on Algge (Sea Mosses; 86-87, 1881) and Far- 

 low, in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club for 1889 

 (XVI ; 7-9) has added much information concerning it, fur- 

 nished to him by Mr, Cleveland. The latter furnishes the most 

 complete account of the morphology of the species, that we 

 possess. 



The writer made the acquaintance of the Elk-Kelp in 

 December, 1895, in the waters between the mainland and 

 Santa Catalina Island, near the locality where it was col- 

 lected by Dr. Eisen. The first specimens found by the 

 writer, were cast ashore upon San Pedro Beach and as they 

 lay upon the sand, with the branches stretched out from the 

 bladder, the resemblance between their extended arms and the 

 antlers of a stag, was certainly very striking. These speci- 

 mens, of course, were very imperfect, lacking holdfasts 

 entirely and retaining only fragments of the leaves. 



Soon after, numerous specimens were found entangled 

 among the Macrocystis, which forms, there, a belt along the 

 coast extending out to the 10-fathom line, but all these lacked 

 holdfasts and had more or less imperfect leaves. It was only 

 outside of the 10-fathom line, in open water of 12 fathoms or 

 more, that perfect specimens were found. Numbers were 

 seen several fathoms deep, entirely out of reach, but a few 

 were found with the bladder floating upon the surface, and 

 the lower portions loosened from the bottom, but with the 

 holdfast and adjacent parts of the stipe still entangled 

 among the attached plants. Careful manipulation procured 

 two complete plants, one of which is represented in the pho- 

 tograph reproduced upon Plate VII. 



