( 140 ) 



triparted, similarly situated as the favellfe ; both kinds of involucres are 

 placed on shoi't, two-jointed, slender stalks, and occupy the place of a 

 metamorphosed ramulus. 



One of our most beautiful species, and the only one, so far as we are 

 aware, with the exception of G. corallina, which is certainly a native of 

 our Scottish shores. It is one of the earliest known to collectors, and is 

 still one of the greatest favoimtes. It is not one of our common plants 

 on the east coast, but we have met with it spai'ingly in several localities, 

 growing in deep very shady pools, along with Callithamnion Turneri. 

 With us, however, it is certainly an annual or at least deciduous. 



We have never seen fruit on Scotch specimens, and even on those 

 from the south of England, which are much more luxm'iant, it seems 

 to be produced but sparingly. 



The pools in which it grows with us are by no means situated near 

 low water, but they are never entirely empty, so that the plant is always 

 more or less u.nder water ; it invariably selects the south side of the 

 pool, where it is in every instance shaded by over-hanging rocks from 

 the sun during the most of the day, and indeed the sun can only reach 

 it at all during the longest days. 



Impatient as it is of light and air, Dr. Harvey mentions a curious 

 circumstance of its having lived upwards of two years in a closed bottle 

 in sea-water {Phyc. Brit.) without showing any symptoms of decay. 

 No sooner, however, is the plant placed in fresh water than its delicate 

 membranous cells burst, and the colouring matter flows out, staining 

 the water or the paper on which it is placed of a fine rosy tint, which, as 

 Dr. Hai-vey observes, remains for a long time. 



We have seen specimens put in paper, without the fresh water having 

 been removed by blotting, and next day when the plants were changed 

 to fresh paper, every atom almost of the colouring matter had been 

 transferred from the specimens to the paper, leaving the stems perfectly 

 transparent. 



It seems worthy of remark, that although the greater part of the speci- 

 mens in some of our localities w^ere removed in 1858, the plants are 

 much more abundant this season than last, although no fruit was 

 observed, on any of the specimens. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE CXV. 



Fig. 1. — Griffitksia setacea, natural size. 

 2. — Branchlet with favellre. 

 3.— Favellaj. 



4. — Branchlet with tetraspores. 

 5. — Ramulus from involucre wdth tetraspores. 

 6. — Tetraspores from same. AH magnified. 



