256 HIM ANT HAL I A. PART n. 



in lower latitudes and under the equator itself.' In the 

 opposite cold and frigid zones the waters are inhabited 

 by certain genera of Fucoidese, which are in a great 

 measure representatives of one another.' 4 The huge 

 D'Urvillsea and the Sarcophycus in the Antarctic Ocean 

 represent the Himanthalia and Fucus proper in the 

 north, and the Cystoseirese and Halidrys of the northern 

 seas are represented by the Blossevillea and Scytothalia 

 in the southern. 



The frond of the Himanthalia lorea is a knob about 

 an inch high, somewhat like a small mushroom ; by 

 degrees the top of the knob sinks in, and the frond 

 becomes cup-shaped. In the second year of growth it 

 throws out from its centre strap-shaped receptacles from 

 two to three feet long and the sixth of an inch wide ; 

 they are slimy, forked, and entirely covered with fruit. 

 The true frond sometimes becomes hollow and swells, 

 into a bladder. This singular plant, which grows 

 on our coasts, extends from Norway to Spain. In 

 the D'Urvillsea, its representative in the southern 

 hemisphere, the frond and receptacle are united, for the 

 plant, which is of large dimensions, has dichotomous 

 fronds ten feet long, and an inch or more in breadth. 

 Their surface is ornamented with large cavities like a 

 honeycomb, and the fruit imbedded within them con- 

 sists of aiitheridia and club-shaped germ cells with four 

 spores in each. These plants form a large portion of the 

 wrack and also of the living Algse which surround the 

 Falkland Islands and Cape Horn ; and they extend to 

 Western Chili, where the poorer class make a sweet 

 mucilaginous soup of them. The Sarcophycus potato- 

 rum, the only species of its order, is nearly allied to the 

 D'Urvillsea by the structure of its fruit, and is so named 

 from pieces of its frond being used to carry water. Many 

 other olive-green Algse are peculiar to the southern 



4 Hooker's ' Flora Antarctica.' 



