194 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



term, as I proved, for in getting upon them, the 

 better to secure a good supply of my much- prized 

 little Rhodosperms, tlie wash of the sea caused me 

 to slide completely off them into deep water; but a 

 rope from my ready boatman soon remedied this 

 misfortune. The day was warm, and I was used to 

 -salt water, besides I had ray hands full of Calli- 

 ■ thamuion in fruit, although my pockets were full of 

 water. I said my plants were in fruit, and so they 

 were indeed; some full of tetraspores, others 

 having their crimson branches loaded with favellse 

 containing spores, like bright-red baskets full of 

 shining crimson grapes. But this was not all, for 

 on the tips of the branches of some of the specimens 

 I discovered numbers of fine diatoms, and among 

 them there was the most perfect specimen I had 

 ever seen of that remarkable species, Licmophora 

 flabellata, or fan bearer. This elegant diatom is, I 

 believe, very rarely found perfect. Its little fan- 

 shaped frustules are extremely brittle, and fre- 

 quently, before the diatom is discovered, its struc- 

 ture is broken up, and fragments only are then 

 obtainable. The contemplation of this beautiful 

 object was the source of much delight to me ; but 

 what I saw soon after arrested my attention, and 

 amazed me more than anything I had ever beheld. 

 I had been reading, only a few weeks previously, 

 Dr. Pritchard's account of the Vorticellse, and 

 here, before my eyes, in a few drops of water only, 

 attached to a branch of the Callithamnion, was a 

 living colony of these remarkable animalculse. It 

 was wonderful to see the beautiful little bells of the 

 Vorticellffi thrust out ever and anon their long 

 stalk-like necks, extended to their full length, and 

 then gracefully drawn back again, and closed down 

 upon their bases. But to return to the seaweeds. 

 A day or two after the above occurrence I was 

 rowing up the Hamoaze towards Devonport, when 

 I came in contact with one of the mooring buoys as 

 it rolled round and round with the force of the tide. 

 Observing something red on one of the rings, I 

 watched my opportunity as the buoy rolled towards 

 me, and snatched a handful of growing plants, of 

 what proved to be Chryslm^nia (now Chyloclaclia) 

 rosea. This was a great surprise to me, for hitherto 

 I had only obtained this plant from northern col- 

 lectors ; the species being a native of the Orkney 

 Islands, and never, so far as I then knew, having 

 been found further south than Filey, in Yorkshire. 

 However, there it was, unmistakably, Chylocladia 

 rosea, formerly Orcadensis, of Harvey. I was in- 

 formed soon after by Dr. Cocks and Mr. Boswarva, 

 of Plymouth, that they had each taken specimens of 

 this rare plant that season, all of which were grow- 

 ing on the mooring buoys in the harbour. The 

 following year the plant had entirely disappeared, 

 and was not found again for several seasons, and 

 then in entirely diEFerent situations. 



About the year 1S58 I took some remarkably fine 



specimens of that rare and beautiful plant, Qloio- 

 siphonia capillaris, growing some distance up the 

 river Plym ; but although I left plenty behind me, 

 growing luxuriantly, I never found the species 

 again there, or within a mile or two of the place. 

 And, again, as regards a peculiar form of Calli- 

 thamnion cruciatum, taken by Mr, Boswarva and 

 myself some years previously, not a specimen of 

 the species occurred in the same locality for several 

 years, and those that icere taken were of the normal 

 form, no trace of the peculiarities we detected in 

 the former plants being observable in any of the 

 recent ones. This was a source of regret to enthu- 

 siastic algologists like my friend and myself, and 

 the more so, as the late Mrs. Griffiths, who examined 

 some of our newly-discovered plants, pronounced 

 them to be a form of the species entirely new to her. 

 One day while dredging in Plymouth Sound with 

 Dr. Cocks, I til ink in the summer of 1858, I found, 

 in one of our hauls, a remarkable form, of what I 

 thought at the time was Microdadia glandulosa, a 

 rare deep-water plant ; but Dr. Cocks not being 

 satisfied with either his or my opinion concerning it, 

 forwarded the specimen to Professor Harvey, who 

 after a careful examination of its structure, returned 

 the plant, saying that it was undoubtedly new, and 

 was intermediate between Ceranmim rubrum and 

 Microdadia, and that he proposed naming it " Cera- 

 7nium microdadia Cocksii." This particular plant 

 is still in my possession. I have never taken 

 another specimen of it, neither have 1 heard of any 

 plant at all answering to its description having been 

 taken until this season (1873), when, very recently, 

 I was informed that some specimens of a peculiar 

 Ceramium or Microdadia had been met with in 

 Plymouth Harbour, which answered perfectly the 

 description 1 had given of my former novelty. I 

 have, however, had no opportunity of examining 

 these plants at present ; but it would be interesting 

 indeed, if, after a lapse of so many years, this remark- 

 able plant should have again made its appearance. 



I may here remark that the species Ceramium, 

 rubrum, like the beautiful Plocamium coccineum, 

 may justly be regarded as cosmopolitan, since both 

 these species are found in all seas, although the 

 size, colour, and condition of each of them depend 

 greatly on the depth of water in which they vege- 

 tate. Those which grow in situations where they 

 are uncovered by the tide, are usually stunted in 

 form, and turn very dark in drying; while speci- 

 mens which are cast up from deep water are of a 

 rich crimson, and large enough sometimes to cover 

 a folio page. There are two varieties of C. rubrum 

 which, until very lately, ranked as distinct species ; 

 but Professor Agaidh has, I think very properly, 

 united them in the small group of which C. rubrum 

 is the type. These varieties are by no means com- 

 mon. One is known as C. botnjocarpnm, the fruit 

 being produced in clusters like bunches of grapes. 



