FLUSTRA. 347 
and beauty, I have not, among all the plants or vegetables 
I have yet observed, seen any one comparable to this sea- 
weed.” And yet our Newhaven fishermen speak of this 
and many other zoophytes as sea-caff, 7. ¢. sea-chaff, either 
as worthless, or as easily, when dry, driven about by the 
wind. Nevertheless it is, to those who attentively consider 
it, an admirable piece of workmanship, as Ray and other 
intelligent naturalists say, vying in its texture with a web 
of silk or of fine lmen. Its name is from a Saxon word, 
Jlustrian, to weave; and He alone who gathered together the 
waters of the sea could teach these marine manufacturers 
to construct amidst its waves such elegant tabernacles. 
2. FLusrra cHARTACEA, Paper Sea-Mat. 
Hab. Coast of Sussex, Ellis; Brighton, Lister; Ply- 
mouth, Rev. T. Hincks; Dublin Bay, Professor Allman ; 
south of Ireland, Mr. W. Thompson. So far as I know, 
this has never been found in Scotland, but I have it from 
Mr. Tumanowicz, Mr. Wigham, and Miss S. Beever, from 
Hastings, where it seems to abound; also from Mr. Pike, 
from Brighton. 
The cells are an oblong figure, the apertures protected 
by a helmet-like operculum. It is of smaller size and of 
more delicate texture than the preceding; of a light straw- 
