62 THE OCEAN. 



veloping an axis of an evidently vegetable character. 

 On placing the Coralline in vinegar, or other weak 

 acid, the lime is dissolved, leaving the vegetable 

 part coloured as before, which, though continuous 

 through its length, is constricted at the parts which 

 corresponded to the joints of the crust, and looks 

 very much like one of the jointed Fuci. It is very 

 common to see the broad base without any jointed 

 branches, for the former attains some size before 

 the latter shoot, and may be seen in this state on 

 almost every object between the range of high and 

 low tide. It first appears as a thin, round, shelly 

 patch of a purplish hue, on the shell of a Mollusk, 

 or the frond of a Fucus, or the smooth rock, 

 and gradually enlarges by additions at the edge, 

 the progress of which is marked by concentric 

 zones, or rings of a paler tint, till it sometimes 

 attains several inches in diameter. It is tenacious 

 of vitality, and when the branches are all torn off 

 by the violence of the waves or other accidents, 

 the base still lives on, and becomes studded with 

 roundish knobs. This base, when growing on a 

 soft calcareous rock, will often increase much in 

 thickness, without showing any tendency to throw 

 out its jointed branches; or in situations where it 

 is long uncovered by the tide, and exposed to the 

 influence of the sun, it becomes "a softish white, 

 leprous crust." Its ordinary form, however, is by 

 far the most pleasing, particularly when growing, as 

 they delight to do, on the sides of the still, rocky 

 pools already described, their bushy tufts grace- 

 fully hanging over each other, like weeping wil- 



