LAMIKARIACEJ; OF OEKNET 283 



L. flexicaulis-ioYin appear to have been based on a still larger plant' 

 described as having a stipe of 8-10 ft., and a circumference seldom 

 exceeding 4 inches (!) ; tlexible, lying on the rocks, with a smooth 

 polished surface, free from all epiphytes. This' plant, still unknown, 

 may be the North American L. lonf/icruris, specimens of which as drift 

 are recorded by Orkney fishermen, though not seen in recent years ; 

 but these are covered with barnacles, and are clearly old water-worn 

 plants, drifted as the rate of passage suggests for probably as much 

 as twelve months. More recently (1903) Borgesen (in Botany of the 

 Faeroes, ii. p. 454) has described as L. faeroensis a very similar huge 

 frond as growing at the Faeroes, with a lamina as big as a small 

 tablecloth, and a similar hollow stem, 1 inch in diameter. It will be 

 of great interest to see if it is possible to find Borgesen's plant grow- 

 ing in sheltered bays at Orkney, as recorded by Clouston (1834). It 

 was on the strength of sucli records of barnacle-covered drift that 

 Harvey included L. longicruris as British in his Phyc. Brit. (pi. 339). 

 In Clouston's classical account of L. Cloustoni in Anderson's 

 Guide to the HighJands and Islands, he gave the name of the 

 plant as " Cuv3\" Cuvy is the old Orcadian name, and is of Norse 

 derivation, as are all local names of places, flowers, and seaweeds. It 

 is derived from the Norwegian Kuv, old Norse Kvfr, a rounded top ; 

 Norwegian Kuva, to round off, to stump, to dock: the same word 

 Cuvy (or Kuivy) is applied to the stump of a horse's tail. Cuvy is 

 thus a very appropriate term for L. Cloustoni in spring, when the 

 stipe is docked of its frond. The sea-beach I know best is a gently 

 sloping one with a south-east exposure, and fully a mile in length. 

 After a south-east gale the whole beach is covered to a depth of 

 a few feet with seaweed, mainly L. Cloustoni ; a moderate estimate 

 of the numbers cast ashore during winter is a hundred to the lineal 

 yard ; a very small fraction of this amount is made use of ; the rest 

 are covered with sand, or decay, or during a high tide may be swept 

 out to sea again, and disappear. 



III. Alaria esculexta Greville is one of our handsomest sea- 

 weeds ; its long wavy fronds, Avith midrib running its whole length 

 gives it the a])pearance of a long snaky ribbon ; the Orcadian name 

 for this plant is " Myrkals," which Dr. Jacobsen derives from Faeroese 

 3Iirkjallur, the leaf-ridge of the edible tangle ; the midrib varies 

 from \ to k inch in breadth, and the plant receives its name from its 

 winged ajjpearance. It grows in the same localities as L.JIexicaiilis, 

 or higher up the tide-range, and is pre-eminently the " surf-plant " of 

 the Laminariaceoi. At springtides its long fronds can be reached in 

 pools and on shelving rocks ; one shelving rock had at least a dozen 

 14 ft. long Alarias, just within the limits of low-water mark. The 

 whole plant is so tenuous that a storm tears the lamina to pieces 

 before it is beached. The longest I have seen was 21 ft. No doubt 

 many are longer, but the rough sea makes mincemeat of most of 

 them. The stipe varies from 1 to 1| ft. in length, and on each side 

 of this a bundle of " sporophylls " grow from to 10 inches long, and 

 I to 1 inch broad ; on these the reproductive organs are borne. 



The interesting point here is that these " sporophvlls " are shed 



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