22 SAGAKTIAD^E. 



Of course, in so limited a space, a large proportion of this 

 number must consist of small individuals ; and specimens in 

 several gradations of development may often be observed, 

 suggestive of as many generations, from the gigantic fore- 

 father of the family to the tiny great-grandchildren that 

 crowd around his foot, no larger than split peas. From the 

 fissiparous tendency above noticed, it is probable that these 

 multiplications are but essential parts of one individual, not 

 his descendants ; analogous to the multiplication of a plant 

 by cuttings as distinguished from that by seeds. There is 

 no real process of generation in either case. What confirms 

 my suspicion, that such is the true explanation of these 

 congregated groups of dianthus, is the fact that, in general, 

 all the members of each colony are of the same variety of 

 colour. Now and then, however, we do see in the cluster a 

 specimen of quite a different hue, as, for example, a dark 

 olive one in the midst of a flesh-coloured group. In this 

 case we must presume that there has been the deposition of 

 a real germ, — the product of a really generative function — 

 either from one of the individuals already settled there, or 

 from some stranger. Flat stones, but more commonly 

 large bivalve shells, such as oysters, pectens, and pinnae, 

 are the sites usually selected for the colonies of dianthus. 



But though the floor of the sea is the proper home of the 

 species, it is found, in certain favourable localities, to con- 

 gregate in great numbers within tide marks. Where a 

 breadth of semi-cavernous rock, honeycombed by mollusks, 

 and studded with Alcyonia, Tunicata and Sponges, darkly 

 overhangs a tide-pool, as around Petit Tor, and in the 

 caves of Tenby and Lidstep ; or where an immense boulder 

 has so fallen upon others as to present a broad under-sur- 

 face to the flowing tide ; I have seen scores on scores of 

 dianthuses hanging, dank and flaccid, from the rock, each 

 with a globule of crystal water, suspended like a dew-drop 



