IV. 
LAMINAR I ACEiE. — Lessonia.— Alaria. 
87 
discharging the water which it uniformly contains, only hastens the process of 
decomposition.” — H. Mert. ( translated ) in Hook. Bot. Misc. 3, p. 3-5. 
Little is known of this singular Alga beyond the above graphic description, and 
the figure of Postells and Ruprecht. I earnestly recommend it to the notice of all 
collectors of plants on the North West Coast ; though it would appear to be confined 
to Russian America. 
III. LESSONIA, Bory. 
Stem cylindrical, solid, dichotomously branched, each branch terminating in a 
pair of lanceolate leaves. A ir-vessels none. Spores collected in a thickened portion 
of the lamina of the leaves, and there forming a subdefined, dark-coloured patch, 
ellipsoidal, with hyaline perispore, and lying among densely packed, inarticulate 
paranemata. 
Species of this genus probably exist on the North West Coast, but as yet I have 
received no certain information on this subject. The Lessonia Sinclairii from 
California, mentioned by Dr. Hooker, FI. Antarct. vol. 2, p. 460, must for the 
present remain undescribed. The name was given in MSS. to a specimen existing in 
Sir William J. Hooker’s herbarium, having the habit of Laminaria saccharina , but 
a central patch or sorus of fructification, like that of the ordinary Lessoniae. I 
have no means, at present, of referring to the original specimen, and neglected to 
make an accurate examination of it when it was named. It was gathered by Dr. 
Sinclair at San Francisco, and is the Lam . saccharina of Harv. in Hook, and Am. 
Bot. Beechey, p. 407- 
IV. ALARIA, Grev. 
Root branching. Frond stipitate, membranaceous, with a percurrent cartilagin- 
ous midrib (a continuation of the stipes) ; the lower part of the stipe pinnated 
with ribless leaflets. Spores collected in a thickened, central portion of the 
leaflets, forming a definite, dark coloured patch, four spores contained within each 
pear-shaped perispore, myriads of which are vertically packed together among 
inarticulate paranemata. 
A small genus inhabiting the colder regions of the Northern Atlantic and 
Pacific. The lamina which forms the wing, at either side of the midrib, or 
