Ser. Melanospermea;. Vam. Laminariea. 



Plate CCCXXXIX. 



LAMINARIA LONGICRURIS, Be u p 9 i. 



Gen. Char. Frond stipitate, coriaceous or membranaceous, fiat, undivided 

 or irregularly cleft, ribless. Fructification, cloudy spots of spores, 

 imbedded in the thickened surface of some part of the frond. Lami- 

 naria {Lamour.), — from lamina, a thin plate, in allusion to the flat 

 frond. 



Laminaria longicruris ; stipes very long, slender at the base, hollow and 

 inflated in the middle, and gradually tapering to the apex; frond 

 undivided, ovato-lanceolate, membranaceous, obtuse. 



Laminaria longicruris, I)e la Pyl. An. Sc. Nat. vol. iv. p. 177. t. 9. f. A. 

 Fl. Ter. Neuv. p. 41. Post. $- Ruppr. Tllustr. p. 10. /. Ag. Sp. Alg. 

 vol. i. p. 135. Kiitz. Sp. Alg. p. 576. Harv. Ner. Bor. Amer. t. 6. 



Laminaria ophiura, Borg, Diet. Class, vol. ix. p. 198. 



Hab. Cast ashore. Island of Sanday, Orkney, Mr. George Firth (1838), 

 fide Rev. J. PL Pollexfen. Coast at Gamnie, Banffshire, Rev. G. 

 Harris (May 1850), fide Prof. Dickie. Ayrshire coast, Rev. D. 

 Landshorough (July 1850). Near Dunluce Castle, county Antrim, 

 W. LP. PL. (August 1850) : — all the specimens much worn, and 

 covered with barnacles. 



(Jeogr. Distr. Northern Ocean, at Spitzbergen, Vahl. Baltic Sea, J. Agardh. 

 Newfoundland (Be la Pglaie), and common along the American shore as 

 far south as Cape Cod, W. LP. LP. Bahama Islands, Chauvin. Kamt- 

 schatka, Postells and Rupprecht. 



Bescr. Root of numerous, slender, and mnch branched clasping fibres, issuing 

 at irregular intervals from the lower part of the stipe. Stem from eight to 

 twelve feet in length, very slender at the base, and there solid, gradually 

 widening upwards and soon becoming hollow ; at length, toward the middle 

 widened to upwards of an inch in diameter, thence tapering to the apex, 

 and terminating in the broadly cuneate base of the lamina. Lamina, when 

 full grown, six to eight feet in length and from two to three feet in width, 

 oblong-lanceolate or oval, very much waved at the margins and obtuse 

 at the apex, of thinner substance than in L. saccharina. Colour of the 

 stem yellowish-brown, of the lamina a beautiful pale greenish-olive. 



This is a very distinct and beautiful species, and one of the 

 largest of the genus, the frond being frequently as large as a 

 modcv*Uclv -sized table-clotli. It abounds alono; the coast of 



