62 Lucas, Among the Seaweeds at Portsea. [v^.'^xxxvi. 



name for it. Thereafter the Quarantine Ground commences. 

 My Back Beach work, then, was to catch the rock-pools at 

 the lowest tide available, and to hope for a mighty swell to 

 come and pile up the inaccessible treasures growing about 

 the outside reefs in a convenient form for sampling. However, 

 I may say that no swell came, and that all I gathered was by 

 persistent work. I stayed long enough that day to note the 

 run of the tides. 



The most charming of the rock-pools were those largely 

 occupied by Caulerpas. I found seven species growing, and 

 picked up two others. Wilson dredged twelve kinds in his 

 limits. C. scalpelliformis (R. Br.), Ag., and the rare C. trifaria, 

 Haw., were nestling under Sargassum and Cystophora in shallow 

 pools a foot or two deep. There was a beautiful grove of C. 

 Muelleri, Sonder, covering the floor of a pool eight or nine feet 

 deep. They looked like fir branches waving, for the tide 

 communicates with most of these deeper pools. C. cadoides 

 (Turn.), Ag., sent long rhizomes into rock crannies at an inter- 

 mediate depth. The others were C. Brownii, Endl., C. sedoides 

 (R. Br.), Ag., both bright green, and C. Sonderi, F. v. M., very 

 much darker in shade. Everyone is struck with these 

 marvellous Siphonese, plants assuming the forms of cactus, fir, 

 club-moss, stone-crops, plumes, and serrated scalpels, each 

 plant practically one huge all, without subdivisions, and because, 

 though observed in hundreds by botanists all over the world 

 for at least a hundred years, no organs of reproduction 

 have been discovered in any of the seventy-five known 

 species. 



Others of the pools were occupied by a brown tenantry. In 

 one small pool I noted Cystophora spartioides, J. Ag., with flat 

 stem, the branches coming off the edges ; Hormosira Banksii 

 (Turn.), Decaisne, with its necklace-like fronds ; Seirococcus 

 axillaris (R. Br.), Grev., with fruit receptacles growing along 

 the edges of the frond ; Cystophora iivifera (Ag.), J. Ag. ; 

 Ecklonia radiata (Turn.), J. Ag., like prickly brown rhubarb ; 

 and young Macrocystis. I found, thrown up, several plants of 

 Ecklonia lanciloha, Sonder, which has a midrib three inches 

 or more broad, and pinnate linear lobes on each side, perhaps 

 a foot long. It has quite a distinct appearance from its 

 congener, but apparently no one has recorded it from Victoria 

 before ; Sondei's specimens were from South Australia. 



Padina pavonia (L.), Lamx., seemed to prefer to reserve 

 small pools for itself in which to display its wavy iridescent 

 fans. In several pools Cyniodocea antarctica, Endl. (according 

 to Bcntham), was growing, but not, as I saw it, luxuriantly. 

 It is a phanerogam with a wiry stem and stiff, cut-out, green 

 leaves at the summit, and is usually covered with green, 



