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closely set tips to the surface of the frond. This plant abounds on 

 the shores of the Atlantic, from the north of Europe to the Cape of 

 Good Hope: it appears to be equally common in the Pacific, extending 

 along the whole western coast of the American Continent : it is found 

 in the Indian sea, and on the shores of Australia and New Zealand : 

 nor is there any certain character by which the specimens of one 

 country may be known from those of another. 



" Allied to the Codium in structure, and not uncommon in rock- 

 pools, is a slender and extremely elegant little plant, Bryopsis plu- 

 mosa, which consists of a multitude of soft green feathers gracefully 

 connected together. Its substance is exceedingly flaccid, and the 

 branches fall together when removed from the water, but immediately 

 expand on re-immersion. Few of our marine plants are more beau- 

 tiful ; and the pleasure of admiring its graceful characters may be in- 

 definitely prolonged, as it is one of the plants which may be most 

 easily grown in bottles of sea-water. Whilst it continues to vegetate, 

 it will keep the water sweet and pure, and no care is needed except 

 to close the mouth of the bottle, so as to prevent evaporation. The 

 Bryopsis, in all its characters, has the structure of a vegetable ; nor 

 does it much resemble the zoophytes in aspect. And yet it is one of 

 those plants which closely link the lower members of the vegetable- 

 kingdom with those of the animal. Through Bryopsis, the passage 

 is very clear into Acetabularia, an elegant Mediterranean plant, which 

 closely resembles a zoophyte, and which was, indeed, till lately, 

 classed in that division of animals. Instances of this kind of seeming 

 connexion between the two great kingdoms of the organized world, 

 meet us frequently among the lower groups of either, and often, as in 

 this case, where connexion is least looked for. The genus Cladophora, 

 to which I have already alluded, consists of the branching species of 

 the green division of the old genus Conferva. These plants are 

 formed of strings of cells, one cell growing from the apex of another, 

 so as to form a jointed thread. The species are distinguished by dif- 

 ferences in the branching, in the proportionate length of the cells, and 

 in their diameter ; and nearly all of them are beautiful objects. They 

 mostly form scattered tufts, in rock-pools, but some occur gregariously 

 in extensive patches, covering rocks or fuci with a bright green 

 fringe." K. 



Vol. hi. 4 c 



