134 HISTORY OF BRITISH ZOOPHYTES. 
states, “of long trailing branches, with very sharp teeth, 
placed in pairs exactly opposite; each pair seems to be 
jointed into the next. The slender branches grow in tufts 
like bunches of hair. On the Ayrshire coast I have never 
observed it on anything but Laminaria digitata, and seldom 
more than three inches in height, but English specimens are 
often six, and Irish specimens sometimes even twelve inches 
in height. ‘After a storm, clumps, as large as a child’s 
fist, are washed ashore.’ (Couch.) The vesicles are irregu- 
larly scattered on the branches, large, smooth, egg-shaped, 
and often with a rounded operculum at the top.” “It was 
from the great resemblance,” says Dr. Johnston, “ of these 
vesicular ovaries to the capsules of mosses, that the early 
botanists drew an additional argument in behalf of the 
vegetability of the corallines themselves ; and a Darwinian 
might be, perhaps, forgiven, were he even now to feign 
how the Nereids stole them from the mossy habitats of 
Flora’s winter and vernal shows, to deck and gem the ar- 
buscular garnitures of their coral caves.” 
“Nymphs! you adorn, in glossy volutes roll’d, 
The gaudy couch with azure, green, and gold. 
* * * * * 
You chase the warrior shark and cumbrous whale, 
And guard the mermaid in her briny vale: 
