538 



A. Le Jolis, 



(Cuvy) croit sur les rochers qui ne decouvrenl qu'aux plus basses marees 

 d'equinoxe, dans la meme Station que le Haligenia bulbosa; on voit alors 



gement of the fibres is particularly evident, as the plant is frequently Ihrown on sliore 

 having all except the stnmps worn away by friction. 



Stipes. — The stipes of the cuvy scarcely ever exceeds four or five feet in length, 

 while its circumference near the root is soinetimes seven inches. It is so stiff as to 

 stand up ahnost perpendicular two thirds of its height; but droops at the top from the 

 weight of the frond. It is surrounded by a rough bark as tbjck as paste board, which 

 may be separated from it. Colour, light brown; much infested with parasitical plants, 

 particularly the Ptifofa plumosä and Halymenia palmuta or dulse. It tapers mach towards 

 the top, but retains its round figure tili it spreads immediately into the frond. The lower 

 end tastes very salt and is not eatable. The stipes of the tangle, on the contrary, 

 frequently atlains the length of eight or ten feet, while its circumference seldom exceeds 

 four inches. It is so flexible as to lie prostrate on the rocks; hasasmooth polished 

 surface, and no bark that can be separated, at least easily; colour very dark brown 

 or black — rarely hurt by any parasitical plant; the top is considerably flattened 

 some time before it expands into the frond, and the lower end tastes sweet, and is 

 much eaten by some people. 



Frond. — The frond of the cuvy is thicker, s horter, and the segments more 

 numerous and clustered, than in the tangle. That of the cuvy swells into blisters 

 by steeping in fresh water, while the frond of the tangle bleaches white; but the 

 great distinction in this part, and the one which inakes this plant so valuable, is that the 

 cuvy annually throws off the old leaf, and acquires a new one, while this has been 

 never observed in the tangle. 



When the cuvy is examined in situ immediately before throwing off the leaf in 

 the month of March, each will be found to have the segments of the new leaf still 

 „connected at the top," being held together by the base of the old leaf, which has in 

 this State been described as „a new sessile frond" springing from the connected segments, 

 while it is nothing but the old leaf in the process of being pushed off by the new, — 

 a thing which oc urs every year. 



It will be better understood from an examination of specimens, than from description, 

 how the new leaf first Springs from the top of the stipes — pushing the old leaf before 

 it; then divides into segments, each of which is in turn torn from the base of the old 

 leaf, beginning at the margin, tili at last the old leaf hangs by a Single central segment, 

 from which it is easily separated by the first storm that raises the sea, when it is thrown 

 on shore, sometimes in immense quanlities. These old leaves are what are used for ma- 

 nure and kelp, and in Orkney are known under the name of wäre or drift-weed. 



The situations in which the two plants grow are also very different: the cuvy 

 growing so far out in the sea, that the highest limit can only be approached at the lowest 



