Linncean Society. 329 



shores of the Gulf of Floiidii have not yet been sufficiently examined 

 to enable us absolutely to decide that that is not the original source 

 of the plant : and the differences between the Gulf- weed and some 

 other Sargasso, especially S. nutans, are not such as to prove these 

 two species to be permanently distinct. The most remarkable of 

 these differences consists in the leaves of the Gulf- weed being uni- 

 formly destitute of those dots or areolae so common in the genus 

 Sargassum, and which are constantly present in S. natans. These 

 dots, in their greatest degree of development, bear a striking resem- 

 blance to the perforations or apertures of the imbedded fructification 

 in the genus. But as the receptacles of the fructification, as well as 

 the vesicles, are manifestly metamorphosed leaves ; and as the pro- 

 duction of fructification is not adapted to the circumstances in which 

 the Gulf-weed is placed, it is not wholly improbable, though this 

 must be regarded as mere hypothesis, that the propagation by lateral 

 branches, continued for ages, may be attended with the entire sup- 

 pression of these dots. 



" That the Gulf-weed of the great band Is propagated solely by 

 lateral or axillary ramification, and that in this way it may have 

 extended over the immense space it now occupies, is highly probable, 

 and perhaps may be affirmed absolutely without involving the ques- 

 tion of origin, which I consider as still doubtful. 



" My conclusion, therefore, is somewhat different from that of 

 Baron Humboldt, to whom I would beg of you to forward these 

 observations, which will prove that I have not been inattentive to 

 his wishes and to your own, though they will at the same time 

 prove that I have had very little original information to communi- 

 cate." 



Read also " Notes on the Dry-rot, as observed in the Church of 

 King's Wear, Devonshire." By A. H. Holdsworth, Esq. Com- 

 municated by the President. 



The church of King's Wear is Immediately opposite to Dartmouth, 

 and stands about 100 feet above the harbour, on the north-west side 

 of a very steep hill, which rises 200 feet above it. The walls of the 

 old church having become unsafe, the whole of it was taken down 

 except the tower at the north-west angle, to which a new church 

 was attached, standing within the site of the old one, and the new 

 building was completed about two years ago. From the north and 

 south doors eastward the ground rises rapidly, and an area is formed 

 round the church to preserve it from damp ; from the same doors to 

 the westward the ground falls far below the level of the floor within. 

 The floor and ground beneath the old church were removed and the 

 graves filled up. The new seats, which were open, rested on oak- 

 sleepers, supported by new dwarf walls, the floors of the seats being 

 about sixteen inches above the ground ; but the earth on which the 

 paving of the aisles or passages was laid was as high as, and rested 



destitute of root and fructification ; hence they are probably those gathered 

 by him in the Atlantic, and not those which he says grew on the rocks 

 on the shores of Jamaica. Browne's assertion to the same effect is probably 

 merely adopted from Sloaiie. 



