This curious plant is generally distributed along the shores 

 of most of the warmer seas, growing in rather shallow water, 

 on rocks or beds of coral, and often forming widely extended 

 groups of fronds. It assumes several forms ; being sometimes 

 very lace-like and delicate, of a pale colour, and very flaccid 

 substance ; and sometimes coarse in substance, less open, and 

 not adhering to paper. In Ner. Bor. Amer., I have figured the 

 young plant, such as it occurs on the coasts of Florida ; and 

 our present figure represents the mature frond, as seen in the 

 best-grown Australian individuals. Other specimens from the 

 Eriendly Islands are much more slender and more full of small 

 holes; but I have found it impossible, with numerous indivi- 

 duals before me, from many distant parts of the world, to fix 

 limits to the varieties, much less to establish different species 

 among them. 



A beautiful figure will be found in the great French work on 

 Egypt. 



Fig. 1. A full-grown frond of Hydroclathrus cancellatus, — the natural 

 size. 



