(12) 



from a very short cylindi'ical stem less than half an inch in length, 

 gradually widening into a flat obcuneate frond, fovir to twelve inches 

 long, several times divided in a subdichotomous or somewhat palmate 

 manner, the segments from half an inch to two inches in breadth, obtuse 

 and rounded at the extremities. So variable however is this common 

 plant both in the number and division of the segments, that it would be 

 no easy matter to translate them into intelligible language. Young fronds 

 are generally entire, obovate, or lanceolate ; they then gradually become 

 emarginate, bifid, and dichotomous or palmate. At one time we find 

 them in the form of a quadrant, the two sides containing the right angle 

 being almost straight, the other rounded and somewhat deeply crenate. 

 Again we find them with a cuneate base, the fronds oblong, and the apex 

 cut into two to four short lobes ; at another time we find them cut almost 

 to the base, into extremely nari'ow linear segments ; in one variety 

 described by Professor Harvey scarcely a line in breadth. Between 

 these are found intermediate states almost innumerable and of every 

 possible form and degree of branching. Structure : in this there is little 

 variation, uniformly cellular ; cells of the centre rather small, those 

 forming the surface strata excessively minute and coloured, all roundish, 

 angvilar. Colour, a pale or dark reddish brown, becoming rather darker 

 in di-ying, and passing into green in decay. Substance more or less 

 coriaceous when old, somewhat more soft and membranaceous when 

 young, scarcely adhering to paper. Tetraspores from cloud-like spots 

 in different parts of the frond. 



One of the most common and widely-distributed of our British Algae, 

 being found in greater or less abundance on all the shores and bays of 

 the Atlantic, from the Arctic to the Antarctic Ocean, but not perhaps 

 in the Pacific. 



We are not aware that it is eaten anywhere in Scotland at the present 

 day as an article of food, although it is said to have been so at one 

 period ; and it is still much eaten as a relish by all the inhabitants that 

 live near the coast. It is always, we believe, eaten in the raw state ; 

 but we remember seeing, when a boy, some people giving it a slight 

 scorching or roasting by rolling it round a heated poker, after which it 

 had a very peculiar flavom-, which to most persons, as well as to us, 

 was very disagreeable. By this process the red colour was changed to 

 a green. Those specimens which are covered by parasites, such as 

 Callithamnion mrgatulum and Ectocarpus silicidosus, are generally most 

 in request, and many persons consider it no disparagement that a few 

 of the smaller Crustacea {Idotea) and minute shell-fish [Rissoa and young 

 Mytilus, &c.), form a part of the delicate morsel. When sold in the 

 markets, or hawked through the towns or rural districts, as it often is 



