104 HABITS OF THE FLORIDE.E. 



most beautiful of the filiform Alga?. Where the pools 

 are not shaded by large 

 plants on the margin, the 

 northern aspect will be foun d 

 most fertile, especially when 

 ledges of rock project be- 

 yond the rest, and such is 

 the favourite locality of 

 Delesseria sanguinea, whose 

 beautiful rosy leaves, veined 

 with darker striae, are the 

 delight of amateur collectors 

 of sea- weeds. 



Most Florideoe flourish in clear water. But this is 

 not the case with several of the Callithamnia, the most 

 delicate of the filiform kinds, whose slender pinnated 

 fronds, when laid out on paper, resemble minutely beau- 

 tiful tracery- work, and mock the attempts of the pencil 

 to do them justice. The species of this genus flourish 

 most in places where a .coating of mud covers the rocks, 

 or where the water itself is habitually muddy. Often 

 the botanist, searching for Callithamnia, must content 

 himself with bringing home handfuls of mud which 

 merely exhibit the presence of some red filaments, till 

 washed out : yet from this unpromising soil the most 

 charming plants are often procured. A well-known 

 and most successful collector of these plants, is in the 

 habit of visiting, at low-water, in a boat, the muddy 

 base of a small harbour-pier, and gathering indiscri- 

 minately any lump of red which the muddy surface of 

 the pier affords : and from the washings of these lumps, 



