North America, as far south as Boston Bay, and is of particularly 

 large dimensions, and in great abundance, in the deep harbour 

 of Halifax. It would seem also, from its other recorded habitats, 

 to be generally dispersed through the Arctic Sea. But what are 

 its claims to a place in the British flora ? At present they are 

 extremely doubtful — all the specimens which have been found 

 being merely the stipes, covered with barnacles, and deprived of 

 both root and leaf. The hollow stipe, tapering to both ends, is, 

 however, so remarkable that no mistake can be made in identifying 

 the specimens. The question simply is, where were these spe- 

 cimens grown ? By their colony of barnacles they must have 

 been long adrift, and most probably they were wafted either 

 from the shores of Greenland or the more distant American 

 coasts, swept by the Gulf Stream. To us, therefore, they come 

 with no better claim on our charity than the equally drifted 

 fronds of Sargassum. But I am not without hope that future 

 observations, in the bays of Shetland or Orkney, may establish 

 a clearer title ; for if L. longicrnris be truly a native of the Baltic, 

 as Agardh assures us, there is nothing improbable in its vege- 

 tating in our most northern bays. In general aspect it resembles 

 L. saccharina, but the frond is proportionally broader and more 

 blunt, and of thinner substance ; while the very long stem, 

 hollow and somewhat swollen in the middle, will always afford 

 a clear mark of distinction. Our figure is taken from a speci- 

 men collected at Halifax, Nova Scotia. 



Fig. 1. Laminaria longicruris : — on a reduced scale, of an inch to a foot. 

 2. A portion of the hollow stem : — the natural size. 



