476 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [DECEMBER 
Nereocystis 
Statements of the length of Nereocystis luetkeana in various 
localities are shown in table I. 
TABLE I 
Observer Locality Date Depth reported | Meters | Part measured 
Mertens,........ Alaska 1829 | 45 fathoms 82.3 | Stipe only 
PVE ee Without locality | 1852 | 340 feet 103.0 | Whole plant 
Ruprecht. ....5., Alaska 1852 | 250 “ 76.2 “ . 
Kijeliman. . 2.24, Without locality | 1897 | 100 m. 100.0 . = 
MacMillan....... British Columbia | 1899 | 80 feet 24.4 " = 
MacMillan....... - x tgor | 100 “ 30.5 " * 
Saunders......... Alaska Igor | 7o “ at.3 . . 
PVR ay cone Puget Sound 1906 | 21m. 21.0 . : 
wetchell. California 1908 | 41 “ 41.0 : 2 
McFarland....... : 1912 | 100 feet 30.5 * : 
Cs eee eee Puget Sound 1or2 | 72 * 21.9 * ig 
SAUNDERS (15) thinks that MERTENS’ statement is “ probably 
not true,” since he (SAUNDERS) “has measured many fully devel- 
oped plants on the California, Oregon, and Washington coasts, as 
well as on the Alaska coast, and has never found one exceeding 
the above figures” (70 feet). Frve (4) has indorsed SAUNDERS’ 
view. SETCHELL (16) sees a possibility that the “45”? in MERTENS’ 
statement is a “misprint . . . . for 15, which, from all experience 
seems likely.” He prefaces this, however, with the suggestion 
that MerTens’ statement “must have been made with care, as are 
his statements in general.” He also quotes RuprEcHT, who had 
found specimens 25 feet long on the Californian coast, but had 
added “that according to trustworthy natives in the employ of the 
N. A. Company at Fort Ross, it reaches a length ten times greater 
in the vicinity of Sitka and the Aleutian Islands.” SETCHELL also 
says that in his observations from Kodiak Island, Alaska, to 
California he did not find any specimens that approached _ the 
dimensions reported by MERTENS and RUPRECHT, but adds ‘‘ Off the 
entrance to Yakutat Bay, Alaska, while at anchor during a fog I 
saw soundings taken close to and among NV. ereocystis plants showing 
that the solid portions of the stipe were 10-12 fathoms in length. 
Altogether the plants thus observed must have been 45-s5om. in 
length.” SrETCHELL’s report of 41 m. above is based on a specimen 
