IV. 
LAMINARIACEiE. — Laminaria. 
93 
acquainted with it to say whether it has claims to be regarded as anything more 
than a form. Prof. J. Agardh refers it unhesitatingly to L. saccharina , and it must 
be confessed, that if we separate it on the mere characters assigned by M. Bory, we 
must be prepared to admit to specific rank many other forms now referred to 
L. saccharina. 
5. Laminaria longicruris, De la Pyl. ; Stipes very long, slender at the base, hollow 
and inflated in the middle, and gradually tapering to the apex ; frond undivided, 
ovato-lanceolate, membranaceous, obtuse. J. Ag. Sp. Alg. vol. 1, p. 135. Kiitz. 
Sp. Alg. p. 576. Harv. Phyc. Brit. t. 339- (Tab. YI.) 
Hab. In deep water, from five to ten fathoms (or more?). Very abundant on 
the American shores, from Greenland to Cape Cod. Newfoundland, De la Pylceie. 
Bahama Islands, Chauvin. (v. v.) 
Root of many slender and much branched, clasping fibres, which issue at 
irregular intervals from the lower part of the stipe. Stipe from eight to twelve 
feet in length, very slender at the base, and there solid, gradually widening 
upwards, and soon becoming hollow ; at length, toward the middle, widened to 
upwards of an inch in diameter, and thence tapering to the apex, and terminating 
in the broadly cuneate base of the lamina. Lamina , when full grown, 6 to 8 feet 
in length, and from two to three feet in width, oblongdanceolate or oval, very much 
waved at the margins, and obtuse at the apex, of a thinner substance than in 
L. saccharina. Colour of the stem yellowish brown, pale ; of the lamina a beauti- 
ful pale greenish olive. 
This noble species, though having much general resemblance to the preceding, 
is at once distinguished from every form of it by the very long, hollow stem, 
tapering to both extremities. It is by far the most abundant species on the 
northern coasts, and gradually diminishes, in the number of individuals, and in the 
size and luxuriance of growth, as it extends southward. In Boston Bay it is still 
plentiful, though of much smaller dimensions than at Halifax, where it is the chief 
ornament of the sub-marine flora. I have seen no specimen from a more southern 
locality than Cape Cod ; but M. Chauvin is said to have received it from the 
Bahamas. In Europe it is scarcely known to grow beyond the limits of the Arctic 
Sea, whence water-worn specimens occasionally reach the coasts of Scotland, and of 
the north of Ireland. 
Plate YI. Fig. 1 . A young frond of Laminaria longicruris ; one third of the 
natural size ; Jig. 2. part of the hollow stipes of a full grown plant, the natural size. 
6. Laminaria trilaminata , Harv. MSS. — Olney, in Proceedings of Providence 
Franklin Society, vol. 1, p. 39. 
