98 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES 



de TQYve-"Seu\e.—Alaria Pylaii, Ker. Am. Bor.— A. esculcnta, var., Post. 

 & Eupr., Illustr. Alg., PL 18.) 



Base of lamina cuneate, fructiferous leaflets obovate-spathnlate. 



Common on exposed coasts at low- water mark and below, from Kaliant 

 nortliward. The variety at Eastport, Maine, Northern Europe, and 

 Pacific coast. 



As yet no species of Alaria lias been found south of Cape Cod, althougli it is prob- 

 •able that they occur at exposed points like Gay Head and Montauk. In the Aunales 

 des Sciences, De la Pylaie mentions three va,rieties of ^. esculenta—platyphylla, twniaia, 

 and remotifoUa — as occurring at Ne^vfoundland, and in the Flore de Terre-Neuve he 

 makes two new species — Laminaria itmscefoUa, including L. esculenta, yar. platyphylla 

 and var. remotifoUa, and i. linearis, including L. esculenta var. tceniata. These species 

 are characterized by the different forms and position of the fructiferous leaflets, which, 

 it must be admitted, are so variable and so constantly pass into one another, that De 

 la Pylaie would have done better in retaining them all as forms of one species. Lam- 

 inaria Fylaii, Bory, founded on a single specimen brought by De la Pylaie from New- 

 foundland, also seems to be merely a variety of L. esculenta, in which the lamina is 

 cuneate at the base. At Eastport the broader forms are common, and one sees all 

 stages from decurrent to cuneate lamince. Agardh refers to L. Pylaii, Bory, the Alaria 

 esculenta var. latifoUa, of Postels and Ruprecht, whose plate represents excellently 

 the extreme forms found at Eastport. The present species is used as food in Scotland 

 and Ireland, where it is called badder-locks, hcnware, murlins, and also in Iceland, 

 but it is not eaten with us. 



Order III. OOSPORES, Sachs. 



Male organs (antheridia) comi^osed of sacks borne on simple or branch- 

 ing filaments, sometimes sessile, containing motile antherozoids ; female 

 organ (oogonium) in the form of a sack, whose contents change into one 

 or more spherical masses (oospheres), which are directly fertilized by the 

 antherozoids and become oospores. 



In the order Conjugates there was a direct union of similar bodies called zoospores, 

 and no clear distinction of male and female cells. In the Oospores the males are small- 

 motile bodies (in algie), which directly impregnate the spherical masses of i)roto- 

 plasm, called oospheres, either before or after they have escaped from the mother-cell, 

 the oogonium. As a result of the impregnation, a wall of cellulose is formed round 

 ■what was before merely a mass of x^rotoplasm, and the so-called oosphere becomes an 

 oospore and capable of germinating. The marine plants of the order may be divided 

 into two suborders, as follows : 



a. Large olive-green plants, having the antheridia and oogonia in nearly 

 closed sacks borne in a definite part of the plant j fronds foliaceous, 

 often provided with air-bladders EucACE^. 



1). Minute grass-green plants forming turfs or tufts j antheridia and 

 oogonia naked, sessile, or pedicellate, borne laterally on the uni- 

 cellular branching frond Yaucheeie^. 



