152 BRITISH SEA-WEEDS, [llelauosjiennece. 



from twenty to thirty feet long. This, too, was the growth 

 of one summer, for the storms of winter completely sweep 

 it from the bay every year.'' He joins with Lamouroux, 

 however, in thinking that it may not be strictly annual, and 

 that its duration may depend on the nature of the place 

 where it grows. I do not think it is annual, for there is 

 no month, either in winter or spring, when some of it is not 

 floated out on the coast of Ayrshire in stormy weather, and 

 it is often adorned both in winter and spring with a pretty 

 zoophyte, Laomedea geniculata, giving it a bottle-brush ap- 

 pearance; the zoophyte is very phosphorescent in the dark. 

 In printer it seems to come from deep water, bringing with 

 it Millejmra polymorpha, and at times Venus aurea, not 

 found on our Ayrshire coast except in this w\ay, though 

 abundant in Loch Ryan. 



Lightfoot mentions that the stalks, skinned and twisted 

 when half dry, acquire such touglmess as to be used for 

 fishing lines, like Indian grass, wliich grass, Dr. Xeill 

 informs us, is an animal substance attached to the ovaries 

 of the small foreign sharks. Something similar is found at 

 the corners of the ovaries of our common dog-fish, by which 

 they anchor themselves to marine plants. 



Chorda filum goes by various names. In England it is often 



