BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH vil 
now sending up eleven new fronds, the largest measuring 
8 feet 3 inches in length by 2 feet 8 inches in breadth. 
Fucus InFLATus. Exhibited by E. M. Hotes, F.LS. 
Fucus inflatws was first found in Shetland a year or 
two ago by Dr. Borgessen. The specimen now exhibited 
was found at Lerwick, Shetland, quite recently by a Mr. 
Russell, who sent it to Mr. E. M. Holmes for identification. 
It differs from Fucus vesiculosus in the absence of vesicles, 
and the longer, often forked and acute receptacles. The 
midrib also is less pronounced. In this particular specimen 
the receptacle is not so long or so acute as usual, but some 
of them may be seen to be twice forked. 
Mr. E. M. Hormes, F.L.S., exhibited Colpomenia sinuosa, 
Derbes and Sol., a brown alga belonging to the family 
Eneceliaceee. This alga occurs abundantly in the Mediter- 
ranean, but had never been seen in Europe further north 
than Cadiz, in the south of Spain, till two French observers 
found it in 1906 at Vannes, in the Gulf of Morbihan, on 
the south-west coast of Britanny, and in 1907 several 
collectors found it further north near Cherbourg. In the 
same year E. M. Holmes found it at Torquay, and Mr. A. 
D. Cotton, of the Cryptogamic Department at Kew, found 
it epiphytic on Corallina and Rhodymenia palmata at 
Swanage and Bournemouth. It had now apparently be- 
come thoroughly established in the English Channel. It 
has sometimes been confounded with Lethesia difformis, 
but could be distinguished by the thinner and non- 
gelatinous walls and the cellular and not filamentous 
structure. This alga had an economic interest from the 
fact that it might do serious damage to oyster beds. When 
the tide receded the fronds became inflated with air, and on 
the return of the tide these little balloons floated, carrying 
many young oysters to the surface. This gave so much 
trouble that the fishermen adopted the plan of breaking 
the balloons with prickly branches and recapturing the 
young oysters with nets. M. Bornet had suggested that 
the alga had been brought to Vannes in vessels conveying 
living lobsters from Portugal to be cultivated in the Gulf 
of Morbihan. Young oysters were imported from France 
