88 LAMINARIACE^.— Alaria. ,iv. 



prolono-ed apex of tlie stipes, is of a delicately membranaceous substance, and tears 

 easily in an oblique direction from the margin to the midrib, and it is rare to find 

 specimens of large size in which the upper half of the leaf is not reduced to 

 tatters. During the growing season new ribbed membrane is, however, constantly 

 developed at the base of the old winged portion, and by its upward growth supplies 

 the place of the apex which is destroyed by the waves. In the young plant the 

 stipes is very short and has no pinnaj. As the growth proceeds, it gradually 

 lengthens and becomes much thicker and stronger, throwing out along its margin 

 in the upper half, and immediately below the base of the leafy portion, narrow 

 spathulate ribless leaflets. These are destined to contain the fructification, and are 

 the nearest approach to a proper receptacle of fruit that is found within the limits 

 of the Order. The barren leaflets are membranaceous, and not very different in 

 substance from the ribbed leaf, except in being a little thicker ; but those in which 

 fruit is formed have their lower half, at least, incrassated, and gradually changed 

 to a dark brown. The thickening is sometimes confined to the lower half of the 

 leaflet, and sometimes extends to the whole surface. A vertical section through 

 this mass of fructification shows it to be composed of innumerable perispores, formed 

 out of the enlarged surface-cellules of the frond. Each perispore, at maturity, con- 

 tains four spores. Numerous barren filaments or paranemata accompany the fertile 

 perispores. 



The midrib of Alaria esculenta, when stripped of the membrane, is eaten by the 

 peasantry on the shores of Scotland and Ireland under the various names Badder- 

 locJcs, Henware, Honeyware, and Murlins. If the first of these names signify that 

 this esculent is /ar/rom good, it is perhaps the most appropriate of the whole ; but 

 I do not vouch for the authenticity of this derivation. 



1 . AxAEiA esculenta, Grev. ; midrib solid, scarcely wider than the stipes ; lamina 

 ovate at the base, decurrent along the stipe ; pinnas linear or cuneate. J. Ag. Sp. 

 Alg. \, p. 14:^. Kiitz. Sp. Alg. p. 5'79- Harv.Phyc. Brit.,t. 79- Fucus esculentus. 

 Turn. Hist., t. 117. E. Bot. t. 1759- Fl. Dan. t. 417. Laminaria musafolia, and 

 L. linearis, Be la Pyl. Fl. Terr. Neuv. p. 31 and 37. 



Hab. On rocks about low water mark. On the eastern coast, as far south as 

 Cape Cod. Newfoundland. Also on the N.W. Coast, at least in Russian America, 



(V. V.) 



Root of many grasping branches. Stipe naked at the base, cylindrical, from two 

 to eight or ten inches long, and from two to four lines in diameter, pinnated in its 

 upper half with numerous ribless, linear-spathulate leaflets, which at length become 

 crowded together ; above these leaflets the stipe is winged at each side with 

 membrane, and passes gradually into the cartilaginous midrib of the foliaceous 

 frond, which is from three to twenty feet long or more, and from two inches to eight 

 or ten inches or more in width. This leafy portion is very thin and easily torn, of 

 a clear olive when growing, becoming greener and more transparent when dried. 



