A VISIT TO THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 109 



Ecklonia buccinalis, and these names very fairly describe its peculiarities. 

 The generic terms Lumlnaria and Ecklonia imply a laminated structure, 

 and remarkable mobility, or power of notation ; whilst the specific 

 distinctive buccinalis, or " horn-like," is a further embodiment of its 

 physical formation. It is found in various parts of the world, but, ac- 

 cording to the opinion of the importer, nowhere with its hornlike 

 characteristics so prominently defined as on the coast of South Africa. 

 It may be briefly described as a bunch of pipes or tubes of varying 

 length, all attached, at one point to a slender and solid stem, which 

 springs from the bed of the ocean ; the diameter of the tubes varies 

 from half-an-inch to three inches or more, and increases from the point 

 of junction with the stem, upwards, until each terminates in a sort of 

 club-shaped headpiece or bulb, with a fringed border or leaf-like 

 appendage. The substance of almost all seaweed consists of a sort of 

 vegetable gelatine — which, on drying, both hardens and sensibly con- 

 tracts ; and in the case of the species now under notice, the contraction 

 causes the outer cuticle or epidermis to corrugate, and it assumes the 

 appearance of buckhorn. 



The botanists who first examined and named this seaweed were evi- 

 dently impressed with its external resemblance to horn, but their pursuit 

 was science only in theory, whilst the enterprise and intelligent obser- 

 vation of Mr. T. G. Ghislin has bridged over the chasm which ordinarily 

 exists between theory and practice, and he presents us with the same 

 science applied usefully, proposing, as a new material for man's convert- 

 ing ingenuity, this very horn weed, under the special distinctive of 

 " Laminite." 



The most obvious application of Mr. Ghislin' s Laminite, and which 

 had been better termed Buccinite, is in the production of walking sticks, 

 for which the tapering form, small diameter, and ornamental exterior, 

 eminently fit it ; and perhaps some reader may be picturing to himself 

 the advantages of a seaweed walking stick, which might also subserve 

 the purpose of a weather glass, and keep its owner well up in barome- 

 trical changes ; but this singular property of marine vegetation is 

 necessarily destroyed by Mr. Ghislin's patented process, which deprives 

 the weed of its hygrometric virtues, and renders it at once eminently 

 suited for an incalculably greater number of purposes. I have alluded 

 to its exact physical resemblance to buckhorn — a similarity which is 

 still further increased after it has undergone the treatment with acid, 

 whereby it is made completely anhydrous and hard. For knife handles 

 it is peculiarly adapted, being lighter, more beautifully and regularly 

 nodulated, and much more pleasant to the touch than common buck- 

 horn. It can likewise be bleached, and we shall therefore have the 

 luxury of white buck-horn handles for carvers, &c. Handles for sticks, 

 umbrellas, and whips, coverings for instrument cases, books, telescopes, 

 and opera-glasses, powder-flasks from the bulbous terminations, and 



