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* 

 Hist or ia Fucornm published in 1768, in which he describes 

 JFuciis 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, penute anserinse crasitie, 

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

 cantur verticillatim folia petaloidea terna vel plura, rotunda, 

 concava, circulo in centro 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. Magnitudo 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 hirge amount of valuable algo- 

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

 tels and Ruprecht in their lUiistrationes 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 Gvc\q\\vl ^ Fucus rosa-marina, and three 

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

 and C. reniformis. 



♦Gmelin, S. G. Hist. Fuc. 102. pi. s,f-2, 2a. 1768. 



