112 BiiiTisH SEA-WEEDS. [^MeIa7iosjQermecB, 



phosphorescent. When roughly sliaken in tlie dark they 

 display brilliant coruscations. Mr. Hassall says : " I lately 

 had an opportunity of beholding this novel and interesting 

 sight to great advantage, when on board one of the Devon- 

 shire trawling-boats. The trawl was raised at midnight, 

 and great quantities of corallines were entangled in the 

 meshes of the net-work, all shining like myriads of the 

 brightest diamonds." 



*' "Wliile thus with pleasing wonder you inspect 

 Treasures the vulgar in their scorn reject. 

 See as they float along th' entangled weeds, 

 Slowly approach, upborne on bladdery beads ; 

 "Wait till they land, and you shall then behold 

 The fiery sparks those tangled fronds unfold, 

 Myriads of living points ; the unaided eye 

 Can but the fire, ; nd not the form, descrj-." * — Crahbe. 



^ ^ Frond Jlaty or cornpressedy without a midrib. 

 4. Pucus NODOSUS, Linn. Knobbed Wrack. The root 

 is a large, hard, conical mass, from which spring several 

 branches, from two to four or six feet in length. It is 

 much used in making kelp, though not so productive as 

 some other kinds of wrack. It is called in some places 

 yellow-wrack. In England it goes sometimes by the name 



* Vide Dr. Johnstone's ' History of British Zoophytes,' pp. D2, 93. 



