88 
LAMINARIACEiE. — Alaria. 
IV. 
prolonged apex of the stipes, is of a delicately membranaceous substance, and tears 
easily in an oblique direction from the margin to the midrib, and it is rare to find 
specimens of large size in which the upper half of the leaf is not reduced to 
tatters. During the growing season new ribbed membrane is, however, constantly 
developed at the base of the old winged portion, and by its upward growth supplies 
the place of the apex which is destroyed by the waves. In the young plant the 
stipes is very short and has no pinnae. As the growth proceeds, it gradually 
lengthens and becomes much thicker and stronger, throwing out along its margin 
in the upper half, and immediately below the base of the leafy portion, narrow 
spathulate ribless leaflets. These are destined to contain the fructification, and are 
the nearest approach to a proper receptacle of fruit that is found within the limits 
of the Order. The barren leaflets are membranaceous, and not very different in 
substance from the ribbed leaf, except in being a little thicker ; but those in which 
fruit is formed have their lower half, at least, incrassated, and gradually changed 
to a dark brown. The thickening is sometimes confined to the lower half of the 
leaflet, and sometimes extends to the whole surface. A vertical section through 
this mass of fructification shows it to be composed of innumerable perispores, formed 
out of the enlarged surface-cellules of the frond. Each perispore, at maturity, con- 
tains four spores. Numerous barren filaments or paranemata accompany the fertile 
perispores. 
The midrib of Alaria esculenta , when stripped of the membrane, is eaten by the 
peasantry on the shores of Scotland and Ireland under the various names B adder - 
locks , Henware , Honey ware , and Minims. If the first of these names signify that 
this esculent is far from good , it is perhaps the most appropriate of the whole ; but 
I do not vouch for the authenticity of this derivation. 
1 . Alaria esculenta , Grev. ; midrib solid, scarcely wider than the stipes ; lamina 
ovate at the base, decurrent along the stipe ; pinnse linear or cuneate. J. Ag. Sp. 
Alg. 1, p. 143. Kiitz. Sp. Alg. p. 579- Harv. Phyc. Brit., t. 79. Fucus esculentus, 
Turn. Hist., t. 117. E. Bot. t. 1759. FI. Dan. t. 417. Laminaria muscefolia , and 
L. linearis, De la Pyl. FI. Terr. Neuv. p. 31 and 37. 
Hab. On rocks about low water mark. On the eastern coast, as far south as 
Cape Cod. Newfoundland. Also on the N.W. Coast, at least in Russian America. 
(V. V.) 
Boot of many grasping branches. Stipe naked at the base, cylindrical, from two 
to eight or ten inches long, and from two to four lines in diameter, pinnated in its 
upper half with numerous ribless, linear-spathulate leaflets, which at length become 
crowded together ; above these leaflets the stipe is winged at each side with 
membrane, and passes gradually into the cartilaginous midrib of the foliaceous 
frond, which is from three to twenty feet long or more, and from two inches to eight 
or ten inches or more in width. This leafy portion is very thin and easily torn, of 
a clear olive when growing, becoming greener and more transparent when dried. 
