XIII. OBSERVATIONS ON CONSTANTINEA. 



E. M. FREEMAN. 



History and Literature. The earliest mention of the red 

 seaweed now classified under Constantinea is found in Gmelin's* 

 Historia Fucorum published in 1768, in which he describes 

 Fucus rosa-marina from the material collected by G. W. Steller 

 during the years 1742-1745 at Kamtschatka. The description 

 is as follows: " Peculiare sistet haec planta fuci specimen, 

 cujus exemplum aliud in omni reliqua fucorum historia non oc- 

 currit. Caulis teres est, carnosus, pennae anserinas crasitie, 

 ramis sibi similibus, quibus, tanquam totidem pendiculis, adpli- 

 cantur verticillatim folia petaloidea terna vel plura, rotunda, 

 concava, circulo in centre notata, pulchre expansa, plerumque 

 sissa, ramo per ilia penetrante, exeunte, et pollicis dimidii inter- 

 vallo nova fronde priori simili, prolifico, tertia nunnunquam 

 pari ratione accedente. Petala convoluta pulchre repraesentant 

 flores polypetalos, ut Rosam, anemonen, cet. Substantia tota 

 gelatinoso-membranacea, aqua dissoluenda, pellucida. Color e 

 rubro flavescens. Magnitude semipedalis. Locus. Circa 

 Lapatka inter spongias ad Kamtschatcam occurrit." 



Such terms as " petala convoluta," " flores polypetalos," etc., 

 show what a profound impression the superficial resemblance of 

 the described plant to a rose had made upon the author. 



In the years 1826-1829 the Russian vessel Seniavin, Fr. 

 Liitke, Captain by the order of Czar Nicolaus I., sailed through 

 Russian waters and collected a large amount of valuable algo- 

 logical material. The results were published in 1840 by Pos- 

 tels and Ruprecht in their Illustrationes Algarum in itinere, 

 etc. The authors in their preface to this work state that the ^ 

 collections of H. Mertens and the plates of Alex. Postels form 

 the basis of the entire work. The genus Constantinea is here 

 described, founded upon Gmelin's Fucus rosa-marina, and three 

 species are recognized, Constantinea rosa-marina^ C. sitchensis 

 and C. reniformis. 



*Gmelin, S. G. Hist. Fuc. 102. pl.j,f.2, 20. 1768. 



