SEA-WEED GARDENS. 129 



germinating fans of our little friends again. Though 

 I instituted careful examinations of the spots indicated 

 at intervals of two or three days, it was almost the 

 last of May before I could detect the minute thing- 

 springing from the mud in the tepid pool. Others, 

 however, soon appeared, and grew fast, so that by the 

 middle of July numerous beds of them were to be 

 found, in which the plants had attained almost their 

 full dimensions, the fronds varying from one to two 

 inches in diameter. Mr. Thompson has endeavoured 

 to propagate this pretty Alga with entire success ; 

 collecting the fronds from their native site, when fully 

 ripe, he scattered them in similar situations all along 

 the shore ; so that now, under Sandsfoot Castle, and 

 on the ledges between this and Byng Cliff, and in a 

 little bight of the rocks below the I^othe, there are 

 what I may call flourishing gardens of the Padina, 

 fully established, and needing no further care for their 

 perpetuity. 



It is a cimous and interesting Alga, not only for 

 its singular form, but because of its texture, which is 

 delicately membranous ; its colour, which is pale 

 whitish olive or drab, marked with numerous con- 

 centric bands or zones ; its surface, which is covered 

 with a fine whitish deciduous powder, and its circular 

 margin (often split), which is fringed with a line of 

 very minute hairs, set at an angle from the plane 

 of the frond. The sides of the frond frequently curve 

 inward and form scrolls. The specimens will live a 

 good while in the Aquarium ; they are somewhat 

 difficult to dislodge in a growing state, owing to 

 the extreme tenuity and tenderness of their point of 



K 



