Sti/Uariea,'] licmophora. 337 



shaped. The tufts are two or three lines in height, and 

 often invest the whole surface of the plant on whicli it 

 grows." — Grev, Tliis plant had not been found by any 

 since its discovery at Appin by Capt. Carmichael, till it was 

 got in considerable abundance by D. L., jun., in September 

 1848, at low-water mark, in a little creek formed by trap 

 dykes, in the parish of Ardrossan. When he brought it to 

 me, I was much struck with its beauty. Hoping that it was 

 L, sjdendida, I sent it to Dr. Greville, and was gratified by 

 his pronouncing it to be that rare plant. Though minute, 

 it is well deserving of the name of splendid ; it is like an 

 assemblage of hundreds of beautiful little fans. Had I 

 believed in the existence of fairies as firmly as 1 did in my 

 childish years, I could have imagined that some marine 

 Queen Mab, and all the ladies of her court, were congre- 

 gated amidst the branchlets and filaments of the little Alga. 

 " Materiem superabat opus -J' every fan was of exquisite 

 workmanship. Raised on a little stem, they were spread 

 out so as to form in some cases more than a semicircle, 

 the rays numbering from ten to twenty-six. Each ray or 

 frustule was wedge-shaped, and a little denticulated at the 

 top ; the upper part was amber-coloured, and as each ray had 

 a hghter-coloured dot in the middle of this portion, these 



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