62 FUCACE^.— Phyllospora. iv. 



can be no difficulty in recognising our only species. Its congener (Ph. comosa) is a 

 native of the shores of New Holland and New Zealand, and is distinguished by 

 havinof serrated leaves. 



1. Phtllospora Menziesii, Ag. ; stem flat, rough, especially below, with pro- 

 minent points ; the margin at each side densely fringed with spathulate or obovate, 

 obtuse, entire, nerveless leaves ; air-vessels large, ellipsoid, pyriform or spindle- 

 shaped, tipped with a leafy crest. J. Ag. Sp. Alg. vol. 1, p. 254. Harv. in Bot. 

 Beecliey Voy. p. 163. Kiitz. Sp. Alg. p. 592. Phyllospora Chamissoi, J. Ag. I. c. Macro- 

 cystis obtusa, Harv. in Bot. Beech. Voy. p. 163. Fucus Menziesii, Turn. Hist. t. 

 27. (Tab. III. Fig. B.) 



Hab. In deep water on the shores of California at Monterey {Dr. Coulter, 

 Capt. Beechey, and Capt. Wilkes) ; and on the coasts to the northward as far, at 

 least, as Nootka Sound, where it was first gathered by Mr. Menzies when sailing 

 with Vancouver, (v. s, in Herb. T.C.D.) 



Boot branching. Stems (according to Turner, who cites Mr. Menzies' MS. notes) 

 " twenty fathoms and more long, rising with a short rounded stipes, divided into 

 several long simple branches, of almost equal height." These branches, portions of 

 which, and the base of a young frond, are now before me, vary from a quarter inch 

 to more than an inch in breadth, are strap-shaped, and roughened with minute 

 spinelike or tubercular prominences, and preserve their breadth pretty evenly, 

 except toward the tips, where they become gradually narrower, and pass off into a 

 long slender point. The roughness varies considerably ; some specimens are densely 

 erinaceous throughout ; others are so only in the lower part, with a few scattered 

 spinular or subfoliaceous prominences above ; and others are quite smooth in the 

 upper part. In all, the margins of the branch are set with distichous, vertical 

 leaves, sometimes issuing at intervals of an inch apart, but much more frequently 

 densely crowded, and forming a leafy fringe. They are of various sizes ; some 

 reduced almost to bristles, and others being from two to three inches in length. 

 The shape is also subject to great irregularity, the wide portion being sometimes 

 three-fourths of an inch in width, in others scarcely two lines ; so that the leaf in 

 some cases is narrowly spathulate, at others obovate : in all it tapers greatly to 

 the base, and generally ends in a blunt point. The margin is more or less waved and 

 curled, but destitute of any indentations. The air-vessels are formed by an inflation 

 of the lower half, or imperfect petiole of the leaf, or else of a greater portion ; 

 sometimes, therefore, they are tipped by a long leafy crest, at others by a short and 

 narrow point. They vary much in shape; being globose, ellipsoid, ovoid, pyriform, 

 or spindle-shaped, and from half an inch to an inch and half in length. I have 

 not seen fertile specimens. 



Agardh's p. Chamissoi is said to be characterised by its pyriform air-vessels ; but 

 on numerous specimens of the ordinary P. Menziesii, now before me, there are 



