PREFACE 
“The Laminariaceae of Hokkaido” by Dr. Kingo Miyake, publish- 
ed in 1902, has become a classic not only in Japan but also in the 
western world, though it was written in Japanese. It was published 
as a part of the Report of the Investigation on the Marine Resources 
of Hokkaido, Vol. Ill, issued by the Fishery Bureau, Hokkaido 
Regional Government. The Government requested Dr. Miyabe to 
make a taxonomical study of the kelps of Hokkaido. He was then 
a professor of the Sapporo Agricultural College ; he had studied 
Cryptogamic Botany under Professor W. G. Fargo w at Harvard 
University. To collect the materials for this study, Dr. Miyake 
took a long journey of fifty-two days from July 9 through August 
29, 1894 to visit as many fishing places noted for kelp production 
as possible from Hakodate in the South of Hokkaido to Kushiro and 
Nemuro in the Northeast, and as far as Wakkanai in the North. 
He took with him a painter named Yu Ito whose excellent drawings 
of the living specimens were reproduced in the Plates to add lustre 
to the published work. In view of the list of publications placed 
at his disposal to be referred to, this work could claim authority 
in those days and made its author a pioneer of phycological studies 
in Japan. Dr. Miyake is believed to have had for a long time an 
intention of having printed an English edition of this thesis after 
making necessary revisions in some respects and supplements in 
others so as to meet the development of the researches concerned. 
As a matter of fact, he engaged in active studies of the Laminaria- 
ceous plants himself for many years and published a good number 
of papers on interesting species mostly in collaboration with one 
of his students, Dr. Masaji Nagai. However, to our great regret, 
his intention was not realized after all. 
After his passing in 1951 in his ninety-first year, his disciples, 
including the undersigned, had in contemplation a commemoration 
of their teacher’s long illustrious life by issuing his biography and 
an English edition of his above mentioned work. The former has 
already been published, in 1953, as an interesting biography based 
chiefly on his own memoranda dictated to one of his disciples, Dr. 
Misao Tatewaki. The latter is now presented here in the form 
of a translation of his work. The translation of the text was also 
done by one of his disciples, Dr. Jun Tokida, who has added some 
