THE SHORES OF BRITAIN. 



49 



tribes. The one of which I speak, and the most 

 common, being abundant on every rocky sliore, or- 

 dinarily presents, though subject to much variation, 

 tlie form of a spreading bushy tuft, from one to four 

 inches high, growing from a broad stony base, of a 

 shape more or less round. Each branch consists of 

 many short joints, a little broader at tlie upper than at 

 tlie lower end, which often send out other jointed 

 branches from each upper shoulder, as well as from 

 the centre. The joints are of a stony or rather shelly 



Coralline {Corallina officinalis). 



consistence, being chiefly a deposit of lime ; when 

 dead they are perfectly white, but in a living state 

 they assume a purplish tint. Linnaeus and many other 

 eminent men were deceived by this shelly appearance 

 into an opinion of their animal nature, maintaining 

 that animals alone ever produced lime. But on re- 

 moving the calcareous deposit, we perceive that it is 

 merely a crust enveloping an axis of an evidently 



JB 



