270 SOMKRSET MAUINE AULK. 



flower- bespangled earth, and collected a magnificent nosegay of every hue, we 

 may return by the train, or if we prefer the walk along the road, we shall 

 be well rewarded by the distant view of Brighton, the sea and the cliflFs beyond 

 Kemp Town, resplendent with the setting sun and stretching out bay beyond 

 bay as far as Newhaven, Seaford, and even to the summit of Beachy Head. 



17, Cannon Place, Brigldon, Sejdejnher, 1853. 



NOTES ON THE SOMERSET MARINE ALG.E. 



BY MISS ISADELLA GIFFORD, 

 Author of "The Marine Botanist." 



Thr vegetation of our seas has of late years occupied more and more the 

 attention of Botanists. No longer are the Algae classed along with the Lichens 

 as formerly, but their delicate structures have been carefully examined in all 

 their microscopic details, and these close investigations have aiforded an 

 intimate knowledge of their organization, upon which has been based the 

 improved classification now in use. In this present paper it is not my intention 

 to enter into any of these details, but to lay before the readers of "The 

 Naturalist" the result of my explorations on this coast, one that, until I 

 proved to the contrary, was considered to be entirely destitute of any but the 

 very commonest species. I cannot agree with an eminent Geologist who has 

 said, "There is scarce a chain's length of the shores of Britain and Ireland 

 that has not been a hundred times explored by the Botanist." I believe that 

 there are still portions of our coasts which, at least, have received but a very 

 superficial examination, and I trust collectors who peruse these notes will be 

 encouraged to investigate with care any unrecorded locality which may fall 

 tinder their notice. My first visit to Minehead beach in 1848, yielded me 

 specimens of the beautiful and rare Nitophylhim Ve7's{color, known from others 

 of the genus by its changing rapidly from rose-colour to a bright orange when 

 placed in fresh water. This sea-weed is very local in its distribution, and 

 appears unknown to continental Botanists; on our shores it has only two other 

 localities besides this, namely, llfracombe, where it has long been known; and 

 Youghal, on the south coast of Ireland. At none of these stations has it 

 ever been found growing. I should surmise, however, from the very fresh 

 state in which it is often cast ashore at Minehead, that its place of growth 

 cannot be far distant; probably vegetating attached to shells or corallines in deep 

 water. The time for collecting this plant is from June to the end of August. 

 In the beginning of the season the plants are small, and without any appear- 

 ance of the hardened substance that arises at a later period at the apex of 

 the stem and the ends of the frond; these, when mature, are found to con- 

 tain minute grains; no fructification, except these bodies be such, has yet been 

 detected. From Nitophyllum Bonnemaisoni, another uncommon kind which I 

 find drifted on this beach, it may be known by the entire absence of any 



