MARINE FLORA OF SOMERSET. 121 



the Summer months, at Minehead. It is, however, amongst 

 tlie ßhodosperms that the rarest algfe are observed. On 

 my first visit to Minehead beach, in 1848, I found speci- 

 mens of the beautiful and rare Nitophylkim versicolor, 

 which had previously only tvvo other stations, — Ilfracombe, 

 where it had long been known, and at Youghal, on the 

 south coast of Ireland ; at neither of these localities has it 

 been seen growing, and it appears unknown to Continental 

 botanists. The time for collecting this species is from June 

 to the end of August. In the beginning of the season the 

 plants are small, and without any appearance of the 

 liardened substance that arises at a later period at the apex 

 of the stem and the ends of the fronds. These, when 

 mature, are found to contain minute grains ; no fructifica- 

 tion, except these bodies be such, has yet been detected. 

 From Nitophyllum Bonnemaisoni, another uncomraon kind 

 which I find on Minehead beach, it may be known by 

 the entire absence of any veining, and under the microscope 

 by the larger size of the cellules. It is also very remark- 

 able fi:om its rapid change of color when placed in fresh 

 water, becoming in a very short time bright orange ; 

 when recent the color is rose-red, resembling that of N. 

 Bonnemaisoni. This last is often found with fruit, and its 

 habitat is on the old stems of Laminaria digitata. N. 

 versicolor, I suspect, vegetates on corallines and shells in 

 deep water, beyond tide-marks. Two other species of 

 this genus are not uncommon at Minehead, — N. Gmelini 

 and N. laceratum. In the beginning of August, 1848, I 

 was so fortunate as to meet with the Stenogramme inter- 

 rupta, one of our rarest British sea-weeds, which had first 

 been discovered in November of the previous year, on the 

 shores near Plymouth, by the Rev. AV. S. Höre, and Dr. 

 J. Cooks ; its only other known Station then, was at Cadiz. 

 18.-53*. PAKT ir. Q 



