ESCHARID^ : FLUSTRA. 343 



pleton in Ibid. ix. 69. Risso L'Europ. mend. v. 333. Blainv. Actinolog. 450, 

 pi. 75, fig. 1. Couch Zooph. Cornw. 53 : Corn. Faun. iii. 12], pi. 21, fig. 1. 



Hab. Common on hard ground, in a few fathoms water. Pro- 

 fessor Forbes gave me a specimen from the " Society Islands." 



Polypidom corneous, frondose, arising from a spreading base with 

 a single plane of cells, about four inches high, of a uniform wood- 

 brown colour, thickish, deeply divided into numerous broad segments 

 generally somewhat narrowed at their origin, often bifid or trifid, 

 sometimes palmate near the apex which is slightly rounded ; the 

 surface roughish, minutely reticulated : cells small, in semialternat- 

 ing rows, narrow at the base, dilated and arched at the top, the supe- 

 rior margin armed with four stout conical processes shorter than the 

 diameter of the cell. Wall of the cell thin and membranous, the 

 orifice for the polype transverse, even, and somewhat labiate. The 

 top of the cells is sometimes covered with a small hollow globular 

 pearly operculum opening downwards. The segments vary very 

 much in breadth, but are rarely, if ever, proliferous. " Varietas vul- 

 gatior frondibus latiusculis, dilatatis, extremitate lata laciniosa. 

 Rarior frondibus longis atque angustis. Perrara extremis frondium 

 angustiorum latis et palmatis. Rarissima subpinnatis aut latissimis 

 margineque tantum divisis frondibus." Pallas. Hooke, in his 

 celebrated " Micrographia," says, " for curiosity and beauty, I have 

 not among all the plants or vegetables I have yet observed, seen any 

 one comparable to this sea-weed." When recent it exhales a plea- 

 sant scent, which Pallas compares to that of the orange, Dr. Grant 

 to that of violets, and which a friend tells me smells to him like a 

 mixture of the odour of roses and geranium. On the contrary, Mr. 

 Patterson tells me that the smell is strong, peculiar, and disagree- 

 able. It probably varies, and is often not to be perceived at all. 



2. F. CHARTACEA, cells obloHCf, slightly enlarged distatty ; 

 margins with a short spine at each junction with the adjacent 

 cells. 



PLATE LX. FIG. 5, 6. 



Eschara papyracea utrinque cellefera, summitatibus securis aciei instar truncatis, Ellis 

 Corall. pi. 38, fig. 8. Flustra papyracea, Ellis and Soland. Zooph. 13. Flem. 

 Brit. Anim. 535. Lister in Phil. Trans, an. 1834, 384, pi. 12, fig. 3. Edwards 

 in Lam. Anim. s. vert. 2de 6dit. ii. 220. F. chartacea, Turt. Gmel. iv. 663. Turt. 

 Brit. Faun. 209. Stew. Elem. ii. 436. Couch Corn. Faun. iii. 121. 



Hob. Coast of Sussex, Ellis. Brighton, Lister. Dublin bay, 

 Prof. Allman. Southern coast of Ireland, W. Thompson. 



