30 



nor Browne's evidence on this subject being satisfactory.* But the 

 shores of the Gulf of Florida 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 Sargassa, especially S. natans, 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 pro- 

 bable, and perhaps may be affirmed absolutely without involving the 

 question of origin, which 1 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 communicate." 



Notes on the Dry-rot, as observed in the Church of King's Wear, 

 Devonshire. By A. H. Holdsworth, Esq. 



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 



" * See Sloane's Jam. i. p. 59. I have examined Sloaue's specimens in his herba- 

 rium ; they belong to Gulf-weed in its ordinary form, and are alike 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 Sloane." 



