2Q4 BY THE DEEP SEA. 



pale olive-brown, and slit up into several sections, so that the 

 whole frond has a rough resemblance to the diverging fingers 

 of a huge hand : hence its name, digitata (having fingers). The 

 substance of the frond is thick and leathery. A species with 

 undivided glossy narrower fronds, puckered and frilled, is the 

 Sugar Tangle (Laminaria saccharind) , so-called because, when 

 drying, it produces on its surface a white powder of a sweet 

 taste, called mannite, or manna. This substance can also be 

 obtained from the cells by maceration-. Subsequent evapora- 

 tion of the brew results in a deposit of crystals. This is the 

 species that inland trippers carry away on their visit to the 

 coast to act as a hygrometer, hanging it on a nail, and 

 feeling it from time to time to find if it is dry and hard, or 

 moist and pliable, for its cells readily absorb moisture from the 

 atmosphere, and as readily part with it when the air is again 

 dry and clear. 



A third species is called the Sea Furbelows (L. bttlbosa), and 

 it may often be found washed up in great heaps after a storm. 

 It springs from a great hollow sphere, which is perforated, and 

 thus affords a home for many creatures. This so-called bulb 

 is sometimes a foot across, and from its stem there is a great 

 expanse of thin leather split up into many broad ribbons. 

 These three species, with the larger Fuct, are largely used by 

 farmers near rocky coasts for manuring their fields, and in 

 former days, more widely than now, they were employed in the 

 manufacture of " kelp " and iodine. These Laminarians have 

 the curious habit of casting off the lamina or blade of the frond 

 each year, by a constriction above the stem, whence a new one 

 grows. This, too, it should be stated, is the growing point, 

 the blade increasing in length by additions near the stem, 

 instead of by the lengthening of the free end. The spores 

 are produced in large patches upon the surface of the frond. 



The Badderlocks or Murlins (Alaria esculentd) of our north- 

 ern coasts, belongs to this group, but is distinguished from the 

 Laminaria by the possession of a mid-rib or central nerve. 



