OLIVE COLORED ALGJE. 97 



Laminaria flexicaulis, Le Jolis. 



This is the Z. digitata in part, of Harvey's "Nereis." 

 The holdfast and stem are much the same as in L. 

 saccarhina, except in the more variable length of the 

 stem. But the blade is much wider and is split from 

 top to bottom into several long, strap-shaped segments 

 from one to three inches wide. The whole blade 

 may be from one to three feet wide, and from three 

 to five feet long. It grows in deep tide pools, imd 

 in the sea, from just below low- water mark to consider- 

 able depths. This, like the other species of La^ni- 

 naria, puts forth its new, yearly growth in the winter 

 and early spring, in a most curious way, which I 

 will now describe. 



The new blade grows forth from the top of the 

 old stem and interposes itself between the old stem 

 and the old blade. It carries the old blade on its 

 top, till it has grown to nearly its full size, when 

 by a process of natural decay, the old blade is sep- 

 arated from the new, and falls away, in the month 

 of May, and is washed ashore, in great numbers. 

 The process has a very curious phase in this species. 

 It is seen that the new frond splits down by a nat- 

 ural process some time before the old blade is cast 

 off, the old blade, meanwhile, holding the tips of 

 the straps together at the top, while they are quite 



