]38 BRITISH SEA-WEEDS. \_Melano8permea . 



That seem like fairy baths or mimic wells, 

 Richlv embossed with choicest weed and shells, 

 — As if her trinkets Nature chose to hide 

 Where nought invaded but the flowing tide." 



Jane Taylor. 



Genus XV. PADINA^ Adanson. 



Generic Character, Eoot coated with woolly fibres. Frond 

 flat, ribless, fan-sliaped, marked at regular distances with con- 

 centric lines, fringed with articulated filaments ; apex involute. 

 Fructification, linear concentric son, bursting througli the epi- 

 dermis of the frond, containing at maturity numerous obovate 

 utricles or tetraspores, fixed by their base, and containing four 

 sporules. — Harvey. 



1. Padina payonia, Lamour. (Plate XIX. fig. 2. Por- 

 tion of the frond.) 



riab. On rocks in shallow pools at half-tide level. An- 

 nual. Summer and autumn. Several places in the south, 

 of England, as at Torquay by Mrs. Griffiths, and at Exmouth 

 by Mrs. Gulson. Yery abundant in the ^Mediterranean. 

 There is a tradition mentioned by Lightfoot that it was 

 found by Dr. Cargill at Aberdeen. Professor Harvey, after 

 stating the tradition, adds : " But it has not been found in 

 Scotland iu modern times, and I fear there has been a mis- 



