250 



HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE-GOSSIP. 



nutans were discovered. Hanging over precipitous 

 rocks the Stellarla nemorum was growing. 



Very pleasant was the homeward ramble, and it 

 was no reluctant consent we gave- to the offer to 

 climb Weeni Rock, about a mile distant. A stiff 

 pull it was up the hill-side, and we were not a 

 little surprised to find a house nearly at the top, 

 with cultivated ground contiguous thereto ; but we 

 did not stay long to hazard hypotheses about the 

 occurrence of that habitation, or the means of 

 ascent to or descent from that abode. More in- 

 viting was the prospect over Aberfekly, and down 

 by Weem towards Kenraore. We watched the day 

 fade through twilight to night, in the dim indis- 

 tinctness of which a silvery sheen was noticed over 

 Kenmore, which we said was Loch Tay, and over 

 that Strath the evening's mists were solemnly 



stealin;; 



G. C. Dkxjce. 



EXOTIC SEAWEED AT DEVONrORT. 



IN former numbers of this journal, I have had the 

 pleasure of calling attention to certain pecu- 

 liarities in the appearance and disappearance of some 

 species of marine algse, of the occurrence of doubt- 

 ful native species, and, in one case at least, of the 

 disappearance of an alga from Torbay (its only 

 recorded British habitat), which for years I have 

 sought in vain, and, as I have already observed, has 

 either receded from shallow into deep water, or, for 

 the present at least, is lost to our marine flora — I 

 refer to the rare rhodosperm, Gigarfina Teedii. \ 



I am about to describe a very remarkable plant 

 ndeed, not by any means beautiful and attractive, 

 but curious and interesting. Curious, because it 

 bears, in outward appearance at least, some little 

 resemblance to one of our native species ; but 

 peculiarly interesting, since I feel tolerably sure 

 that it is not a British alga at all, although the 

 specimen, which has recently been sent to me for 

 examination, was found on a mud-bank at Tor 

 Point, near Devonport, not cast ashore nor solitary, 

 but growing, attached by its hard, clasping root, 

 with several British rhodosperms, to a substance 

 which was fixed on the bank. 



My informant, who is a collector of seaweeds, but 

 is not an algologist, described the finding of it thus : 

 " I was in a boat looking for seaweeds, and as you 

 told me I should find a variety of species at Tor 

 Point and all about in that direction, I told the 

 boatman to row up to Tor Point and to land me if 

 he could. Well, I got out of the boat and walked 

 about as well as I could, considering the dirty place 

 I found it to be, and among other things, I found 

 quite a handful of a long, thick, greenish-olive plant, 

 which appeared to me like one of the branching 

 sponges or the green seaweed called CocJmm 

 iomentosttm or Mesogloia vermicularis. I had never 



seen anything exactly like it, and I asked the boat- 

 man what he thought of it, and he replied, ' I don't 

 know what to make on it, but it's] a seaweed, I 

 s'pose.' When I found the plant, it was firmly 

 fixed, evidently growing upon something two or 

 three inches below the surface of the mud ; how- 

 ever, I pulled it up and took it home and mounted 

 two separate branches, wet and spongy as they were 

 and now 1 should be very much obliged to you to 

 name it for me," 



Upon inspecting this strange-looking plant or 

 portion of a plant, I saw at once that it was either 

 an abnormal form of Coclium or Mesogloia, or, which 

 I could scarcely think possible, a foreign species 

 floated hither. My informant has since assured me 

 that there was some difficulty in pulling the plant 

 away from its point of attachment. This being so, 

 the weed was evidently growing where it was found. 

 Well, I have compared it with a whole suite of 

 specimens of Codium and Mesogloia, and find that 

 it agrees in structure with neither of these genera j 

 though, I must observe, it comes rather near to the 

 latter. So far as I have been able to make outj 

 from an examination of this pressed and dried 

 specimen, I have come to the conclusion that it 

 belongs to the family of the Chordariacece, the 

 diagnosis of which is as follows : Olivaceous sea- 

 weeds, with a gelatinous or cartilaginous, rarely 

 membranous, frond, composed of vertical and hori- 

 zontal filaments or strings of cells interlaced 

 together. Spores are attached to the filaments, 

 and concealed within the substance of the frond. 

 Closely allied to plants whose diagnosis is precisely 

 in accordance with the above, is the foreign species, 

 Liehmannia Laveillei, of Professor J. Agardh. This 

 peculiar plant is a native of the Mediterranean, and 

 is found also in the Adriatic. It occurs also on the 

 coast of Mexico. There is also a species of the 

 same genus found at Vera Cruz, and another, which 

 Professor Harvey considered to be identical with it, 

 on the Australian coast. I have seen a specimen 

 of the Australian species, and I feel convinced that 

 the curious plant I have been describing is to be 

 referred to the same species. It has pretty nearly 

 the habit of our Mesogloia vermicularis (which be- 

 longs to i\\QChordariea),h\3L\, is firmer in substance, 

 thicker and larger in its main branches, and, on 

 being remoistencd, recovers in a great measure its 

 original form. The branches and upper divisions are 

 flatter near the terminal portions, but a transverse 

 section represents generally that of a compressed or 

 flattened ellipse. The length of the plant is from 

 one to two feet or more. 



What, then, is to be said of the curious fact, that 

 an undoubtedly foreign species of seaweed has been 

 found actually growing on a muddy bank in a 

 British harbour ? There is no doubt whatever in 

 my mind, that this plant is ix^))ec\mc\ioi Liehmannia 

 Laveillei, and my friend Mrs. Merrificld, of Brighton 



