MELANOSPERME 4%. >.) 
the plant is renewed by growth from the tip of the stem, a new frond 
arising from the base of the old one, which developes and pushes 
the old frond before it, which finally drops off. This species may 
easily be distinguished from the others of its tribe by its more or less 
waved or curled margin, and by the central portion of the frond being 
divided, as it were, by transverse partitions placed at regular distances 
throughout the whole length of the plant. Fig. 43 represents a group of 
young fronds of this species. In the Arctic Sea, and on the coast of North 
America, there is a noble plant of this widely dispersed group, the stem of 
which is 8ft. long, and the broad plate-like frond is as large as a good-sized 
table cloth. Portions of this great Laminaria are occasionally cast ashore 
on our northern coasts; having been floated hither from Greenland or they 
Fig 43 Laminaria saccharina. 
American coasts by the Gulf Stream. The name of this algais L. longicruris. 
On the South African coast there is a very remarkable species of Laminaria, 
of the beautiful genus Ecklonia, known there as the ‘‘ Trumpet-weed.”’ 
The native herdsmen maké use of its long hollow stem, when dried and 
fashioned for the purpose, as a trumpet for calling the cattle together in 
the evening—performing, in fact, a Ranz des Vaches, like the herdsmen of 
Switzerland. A very beautiful and graceful species of this genus, though 
regarded by some botanists as a variety, and by others as the young, only, 
of the L. saccharina, is described by Dr. Harvey under the name of 
L. phyllitis (Fig. 44), and, although I must confess there is a strong resem- 
blance between it and young plants of L. saccharina, there are certain 
