6o - Lucas, Among the Seaweeds at Porisea. [vol.'xxxvi. 



A WEEK AMONG THE SEAWEEDS AT PORTSEA. 



By a. H. S. Lucas, M.A., B.Sc. (Hon. Member). 



{Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, 12th May, 191 9.) 



Feeling, early in the year, that I would be the better for a 

 change of scene and air and activity/, I bethought me of the 

 seaweeds I had gathered 16 years ago in Victoria, and decided 

 to put in a week's collecting at Anglesea, where I had once 

 had good hunting with Mr. H. T. Tisdall. I could not secure 

 a room at Anglesea, however, and so thought I would try 

 ground new for me, at Portsea, not far from Port Phillip Heads, 

 for with ocean and bay shores one ought to be able to see a 

 good many kinds ; and had not Mr. Tisdall written in the 

 Victorian Naturalist (vol. xiv., pp. 7, 86) enthusiastically on the 

 sea-flora of Sorrento, and had not Mr. Bracebridge Wilson 

 dredged the sea-floors of the whole neighbourhood, with 

 magnificent success ? So Portsea it was. On my return to 

 Melbourne I paid a visit to my old friend the editor, and, after 

 he had recognized me, he claimed a paper for the Naturalist. 

 As seaweeds are not aggressively botanical, he seemed to 

 think that members would be pleased to hear something of 

 them. 



The steamer left Port Melbourne an hour after the usual 

 time, and as I had gone a little early to arrange for the luggage, 

 which included a formidable looking and weighing Sydney 

 Herbarium press, I had time to inspect the sandy beach. Good 

 plants of Sargassmn Gunnianiim, J. Ag., 5. bracteolosum, J. Ag., 

 and S. leptopodum, J. Ag., were being floated in, and with them 

 the two Cystophoras, C. uvifera (Ag.), J. Ag., and C. cephal- 

 ornithos (Lab.), J. Ag. — the former with spherical and the 

 latter with barleycorn-shaped floats. Small boys with bare 

 legs proved handy, and were interested when they were shown 

 that the floats were not fruits (sea-currants), but served to keep 

 the growing plant erect in the water. I should say that careful 

 gathering on this beach would yield quite a number of Sargassa 

 — I got 5. undiilattim, J. Ag., at Sandringham — and Sargassa 

 are troublesome plants to collect on the ocean coast ; they live 

 in water just too deep as a rule, and too near the rocks to allow 

 of safe dredging. 



The trip was a comfortable one, with smooth sea, moderate 

 temperature, and clear air. I could almost see the famihar 

 odour of the onions as we passed Portarhngton. I did not 

 notice mucli floating weed. We called at Queenscliff. The 

 wharf piles were covered above with green and lower witli 

 brown alg^e, as the text -books prescribe. The green — vivid 

 green — streamers of Ulva l^tevirens, Aresch., must have been 

 over two feet long. I was rather surprised to find that Brace- 



