116 HISTORY OF BRITISH ZOOPHYTES. 



even the wisest, were his head to drop off, unless we were 

 to give credit to the legend of one of old, who, when deca- 

 pitated, could run with his head under his arm. This marine 

 knight of the oaten pipes can survive what would prove 

 fatal to our doughtiest heroes. While the florid summit 

 of the vacant stalk is fading, Sir J. G. Dalyell tells us that 

 a kind of cicatrix closes the wound. But, on the lapse of 

 a certain interval, it darkens again; an internal head is ad- 

 vancing, which, speedily ascending, bursts a transparent in- 

 volucrum, and flourishes as a new head precisely from the 

 same point its precursor had fallen, and of equally vivid 

 hue. Singular to be told, the regenerative faculty is not 

 exhausted here ; for, after subsisting an indefinite time, this 

 second head droops and dies, and is dissolved on its fall. 

 Then it is replaced by a third, and the third by a succes- 

 sor." How often this may be repeated has not yet been 

 ascertained. 



The field botanist knows the pleasure arising from the 

 power of association, leading him to remember that in some 

 " lone glen of green breckan," or on some cliffy moun- 

 tain-side, when, along with some dear friend, he first saw 

 such a flower. I often remember that the first time I had 

 the pleasure of seeing these living marine flowers was in 



