SEA-WEEDS. 91 



the Mixon. It can be reached only by means of a 

 boat, and can be examined only at low water of spring- 

 tides, and then only (at least with any comfort) pro- 

 vided no sea is running, as otherwise the breakers wash 

 over the mass, and prevent examination. A wet foot 

 is pretty sm*e to be an accompaniment of the expedi- 

 tion; for the angular blocks, offering here only project- 

 ing points, and there surfaces sloping in all angles of 

 obliquity, and draped with wet and slippery beds of 

 EnteromorplicE and other weeds, afford but a pre- 

 carious foot-hold for one used to these rough rocks, 

 and to an mipractised tread are sure to prove treach- 

 erous. In summer, however, a partial immersion 

 in these crystal waters is an evil of no terrible 

 magnitude. 



The Laminarice luxm'iate on the shelving outer 

 margin, and toss their broad brown fronds to and fro 

 in the 'rolling seas, like forest trees that rock in the 

 gales of autumn. But it is chiefly the red and gi'een 

 families of Alg^ that flourish here ; the Winged and 

 the Sinuated Delesserice ; the excessively ramifled 

 Plocamium, whose brilliant crimson trees are so much 

 in demand by those who make mimic landscapes out 

 of dried sea- weeds ; the pencilled Polysiplionice ; the 

 brush-like Dasya ; the feathery Ptilota ; and various 

 species of elegant Ceramia^ so easily recognised by 

 their regularly jointed stems and double incurved tips; 

 and the tender Ccdlkliamma, among the most deli- 

 cately lovely, though the most minute, of marine Algse. 

 Several species of Cladojyliora, also, here spring from 

 the rocky surface in greater or less abundance, forming 

 pencil-like tufts of various hues of green, some indeed 



