164 LAMPROTHAMNUS ALOPECUROIDES. 



carefully searched the shore, as it was here Mr. Barrett had 

 found a few detached fronds of it rolled up w r ith the prevailing 

 silkweed (a Desmidea) which abounds at the upper end of the 

 estuary. Below Langton Herring, where the proportion of salt water 

 prevails, the silkweed is displaced by the common seaweed Alga 

 nodosa. The tide as it ebbs and flows deposits in this light the 

 floating material passing to and fro. 



Taking the silkweed for our guide, we returned to the upper end 

 of the estuary, and after dredging that part of it for more than a 

 couple of hours we at last hauled up the living plant, in full and 

 luxuriant fruit. 



Lamprothamnus alqpecuroides, Braun. monoecious. Stem from 

 three inches to a foot long, not much branched ; the distance of the 

 internodes from each other diminishes towards the summit, where 

 the whorls are much crowded ; in some cases there are as many as 

 seventeen whorls within a space of two inches, giving the head the 

 appearance of a fox's brush, which probably suggested its specific 

 name. The whorl-branches on the upper part of the plant are 

 much reduced in length and number, consisting of one cell only ; 

 except near the base, where they consist of two or three cells, are 

 placed endways, the terminal one finishing off in a sharp point, 

 furnished, like the other two, with three short stipulodes. The 

 base of each whorl is furnished with a circle of bracts. It is smooth, 

 destitute of spines, and papillse, not incrusted, and hyaline 

 when devoid of chlorophyll. The branchlets of the rhizome are 

 exceedingly delicate and thread-like ; some of them bear at the 

 nodes one or more minute unicellular bulbils, with two or more 

 bract-like appendages. After dessication the plant becomes 

 extremely brittle. 



The family of Cliaraceoe, which is aquatic, is a small natural 

 order of vascular acrogens, whose affinities with other Orders have 

 not been satisfactorily determined. Some botanists have supposed 

 it to be a degenerate Phanerogam on account of its dioecious- 

 or monoecious character, approaching in this respect Najas, Hip 

 vuris, Ceratophyllum, &c. ; others find a place for it among the 



