Delessene(F.'\ plocamium. 249 



Family XIV. DELESSEEIE^E. 



" There's beauty in the deep : — 

 The wave is bluer than the sky ; 

 And though the light shine bright on high. 

 More softly do the sea-gems glow, 

 That sparkle in the depths below ; 

 The rainbow's tints are only made 

 "When on the waters they are laid ; 

 And Sun and Moon most sweetly shine 

 Upon the Ocean's level brine : — 

 There's beauty in the deep." 



/. G. C. Brainard. 



Genus LXXI. PLOCAMIUM, Lamouroiix. 



Gen. Char. Frond filiform, compressed, between membrana- 

 ceous and cartilaginous, fine pink-red, mucli branched, branches 

 distichous (alternately secund and pectinated) . Fructification of 

 two kinds : spherical sessile capsules, and lateral minute pro- 

 cesses, containing oblong granules, transversely divided into 

 several parts by pellucid lines. — The name is from a Greek word 

 signifying hraided hair. — Greville. 



I. Plocamium coccineum, Lynghye. (Plate XII. fig. 46, 

 portion of the frond, natural size ; and at the base, on the 

 left, a branclilet with a tubercle, magnified.)"^ 



* " The description," says Mr. Turner, " given of this plant in the ' Flore 

 Fran9aise,' is so characteristic that I am tempted to transcribe a pai't of it. 

 " ' Sa tige est tres-rameuse, et toujoui's dans Ic merae plan : I'ordre dee 



