THE WONDERS OF THE SHORE. 145 
prolific fancy for imagery here, but was well content 
to jot down the simple lineaments of Nature as he 
saw her in plain, homely England. 
“Tt is a beautiful and fascinating sight for those 
who have never seen it before, to see the little shrub- 
beries of pink coralline— ‘the arborets of jointed 
stone’— that fringe those pretty pools. It is a 
charming sight to see the crimson banana-like leaves 
of the Delesseria waving in their-darkest corners ; 
and the purple fibrous tufts of Polysiphonia and 
Ceramia, ‘ fine as silkworm’s thread.’ But there are 
many others which give variety and impart beauty 
to these tide-pools. The broad leaves of the Ulva, 
finer than the finest cambric, and of the brightest 
emerald-green, adorn the hollows at the highest level, 
while, at the lowest, wave tiny forests of the feathery 
Ptilota and Dasya, and large leaves, cut into fringes 
and furbelows, of rosy Rhodymeniz. All these are 
lovely to behold; but I think I admire as much as 
any of them, one of the commonest of our marine 
plants, Chondrus crispus. It occurs in the greatest 
profusion on this coast, in every pool between tide- 
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