Page:The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage.djvu/203

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Campbell's Islands.]
FLORA ANTARCTICA.
177

for the several reasons adduced by him in his memoir, in the 'Annates des Sciences Naturelles^ Oct. 1842. He must allow us, however, to claim for La Billardiere, not only the discovery of the plant, but that of its fruit also; for, though the description of that author be imperfect, there can exist no doubt that the tubercles immersed in the frond, which he notices, are what we now know to be fructification. We further enter our protest a»ainst the system of changing the specific name from gladiatus, which is quite unexceptionable, to Billardieri. In the general character we have described the spores as finally divided into four, more or less unequal parts, when they resemble the tetraspores of several Floridece, which doubtless, as demonstrated by M. Decaisne and Thuret in other Fucacea, form together but a single spore. Young, and even nearly mature, seeds exhibit no traces of this internal division; while those that are fully grown and have assumed a dark colour, are divided by very clear lines and even spaces. "With regard to other organs in the Fucacea, which M. Montagne calls gemma? or acrospenns, we incline to consider them analogous to what are termed antheridia in some other families."[1]

1. Xiphophoea Billardieri, Mont. Prodr. Nov. Pliyc. in itin. adPolum Ant a ret. p. 12. Voy. au Pole Sud, Bot. Crypt, p. 55. t. 7. f. 1. Fucus gladiatus, Labill. PL Nov. Roll. II. p. 3. t. 256. Encycl. Met/i. Bot. Si/j>j)l. V. p. 439. Lamouronx in Mem. dii Mm. d'Hist. Nat. XX. p. 36. Turner, Hist. Fiu: t. 240. Berkeley in Ann. Nat. Hist, for 1843, p. 57. Ctenodus, Kiitzing. (Tab. LXIX. Fig. III.)

Hab. Lord Auckland's group ; on rocks in the sea, very abundant.

Conceptacula per totam frondis longitudinem praeeipue apicem versus sparsa, immersa, tuberculiformia, leviter eouvexa, poro pertusa, externe consimilia, interne nucleis diversis instructa. Altera sporas obovatas v. pyrifornies. Sporte magna?, sessiles, e cellulis parietalibus ortae, perisporio hyalino circumdatse, nucleo priuium simplici demum quadripartito nigro-fusco donatse, cum paraphysibus simplicibus articulatis filiformibus achromaticis coninrixtas. Altera contra filis ramosissimis tenuibus hyalinis articulatis farciuntur, quorum externi turgidi materie granulosa repleta evadunt.

Plate LXIX. Fig. III. — Divided spores of Xipkop/iora (called erroneously tetraspores on the plate).

4. LAMINARIA, Ay.

1. Laminaria, (sp.)?

Hab. Campbell's Island. (Br. Lyall.)

A fragment of a young frond, too imperfect for description or determination of the species.


  1. The remark in inverted commas was made by Dr. Harvey. — The division of the spores of Fucacea was observed while examining the 2)' Urvillea utilis in a fresh state, when they were considered as tetraspores, and again by Dr. Montagne and by myself, in dried specimens of XJphophora. More recently, and since the above was written, the interesting paper of MM. Decaisne and Thuret has appeared, in the 'A/males des Sc. Nat.' (Series 3. vol. iii. p. 1.) It is there shown that this structure exists in five species of Fucus abundant on our shores ; F. nodosus, serratus, vesiculosus, canaliculatus and tuberculatus : also in Himanthalia, which I have elsewhere allied to V Urvillea (London Journ. of Botany, vol. ii. p. 325), and the mode of division in the original spores is excellently followed and illustrated, as also their germination, a most important point. I cannot omit here an allusion to two of the most remarkable recent discoveries in modern Botanical Science, made by those observers, and published in the same paper: — that of organs, in every respect analogous to the antheridia of mosses (of whose nature my coadjutor, Mr. Harvev, had formed the same idea), existing in all the above-mentioned Fuci; and these antheridia being wholly filled, before bursting, with bodies endowed with rapid motion and apparent volition, and which, though thus proved to be truly of vegetable origin, have hitherto been ranked in the a nim al kingdom. I am indebted to the friendship of M. Decaisne for a demonstration of these curious phenomena in living Alga', and for the original drawings from which the plates that accompany his interesting paper in the 'Annates ' are executed. — J. D. H.