288 PLOKA OF PLYMOUTH SOUND 



open bathing-place below the Hoe, the weeds are not so clean as in 

 many other localities. 



Firestone Bay. — The shore of this bay is being completely altered. 

 The west part of the beach has been converted into an artificial 

 stony embankment, on which now the commonest of weeds grow. 

 It seems useless to look for the rare forms at one time found on its 

 shores — Crouania attenuata, 8pyridia Jilamentosa, Chrysymenia rosea, 

 Striaria attenuata. Blasting is in full operation in the eastern part 

 of the bay, with a consequent disturbance of the flora. 



I would record here my great indebtedness to Mr. Gr. C. Bourne, the 

 Director of the Laboratory, for the liberal use I was allowed to make 

 of the resources of the Association for the supply of material. I could 

 not have wished for more use,* having regard to the needs of the 

 zoologists engaged in investigations in the Laboratory. I cannot hope 

 to give an adequate idea of the innumerable opportunities for research. 

 The brackish waters, with their accompanying mud-banks, furnish 

 many plants needing investigation ; Plymouth waters were long ago 

 pointed out by Harvey as pre-eminently a habitat of the genus Galli- 

 thamnion. There is quite enough material obtainable for the study 

 of the unknown life-history of the plants Dictyotacew, Ectocarpus , 

 Tilopteris Mertensii, Pylaiella, Mesogloea, Punctaria, Arthrocladia 

 villosa, Sporochnus pedunculatus, Asperococcus, Bryopsis, Codium, &c., 

 and msinj Florideae (until the great work on the Floridese by F. Schmitz 

 appears it is impossible to say what requires to be done in this group) . 

 One or two examples may be given. Arthrocladia villosa, described 

 as occurring in Firestone Bay only, I found in at least seven other 

 localities, and in several places in quantity. Stenogramme interrupta 

 is a plant of which very little is known. There is doubt even as to 

 the position of the tetraspores ; male organs are unknown, and there 

 is no description of the procarpia or fruit formation. I have got 

 material in which I am able to come to definite conclusions on all 

 these points. 



* The greater part of my work was done by the help of the dredge in the " Firefly," 

 "Mabel," or "Anton Dohru." Occasionally I used grappling-irons, working alone in a 

 punt. In this case I either made the punt stationary to buoys, &c., and then hurled the 

 grapples as far as possible, drawing them in slowly and with steady motion, or else I 

 fastened the rope of the grapples to the boat, and I'owiug slowly dragged the grappling- 

 irons for some distance. I used sometimes a small anchor with half a dozen curved, 

 radiating teeth ; or, better, grapples of a similar form, but made of soft iron, so that if 

 caught on a rock a vigorous pvill bent the iron and released the whole. A straight bar of 

 iron, with a horizontal row of curved teeth on one side, was also very useful. In some 

 localities where Laminaria is growing in plenty^ e.g. some parts of Firestone Bay, grappling 

 is better than dredging, for the dredge becomes choked in the first few yards with Lami' 

 narla and nothiuff can then enter. 



