10:^ BRITISH SEA-WEEDS. {Ilelano-spermea, 



play their part in effecting this benignant purpose on the 

 rocks upon the shore. Though rather 'kirid in hue^ as is 

 also their neighbour Grlmmia maritima, they form a good 

 contrast with the natural colour of the rocks, and with the 

 grey and yellow lichens with which they are frequently in- 

 termingled ; and feeble though they may seem, they form 

 some defence to the rocks themselves against the wasting 

 efficacy of the beating surge and the grinding sand -, and 

 though many of them may be exhausted by a winter^s cam- 

 paign, by the breath of spring being quickened they return 

 " once more unto the breach.^^ 



And then what a snug refuge do these crowded tufts of 

 Lic/iince form to innumerable little Mollusca, which lurk 

 under them, enjoying at one time the overflowing tide, 

 during which they feast on what the tide brings them ; and 

 then, it may be, enjoying little less the security and total 

 ease which fall to their lot during the houi-s of ebb-tide. 

 Let any person scrape off a handfull of Lichince, and he will 

 find, on examination, that he has got along with it numerous 

 specimens of Spliana depressa, Turtonia minuta, minute 

 Liftoriii^, and other ^lollusks. AVe have only to add that 

 Lichina arc found on all our sea- side rocks. 



