190 SEA MOSSES. 



name of " Dulse " that it seems hardly necessary to 

 give a particular description of it. As its name says, 

 it is a red membrane. From a small, hard disk, a 

 veiy short, round stem arises for one-fourth of an 

 inch or so, and then spreads out into a broad, thin, 

 fan-shaped membrane, three to twelve inches or more 

 high, destitute alike of midrib and veins. But it is 

 cleft from top to bottom, or nearly, into many wedge- 

 shaped segments. The main segments are cleft down 

 half way or so, giving them also, and the whole plant, 

 somewhat the appearance of a hand with the fingers 

 spread out. The margins of the frond are usually 

 quite entire, but the ends of the " fingers," are cut 

 in a little way, to show where other divisions would 

 come. 



The plant, however, is variable, sometimes growing 

 a foot or more high, a narrow leathery strap, fringed 

 along the sides with leaflets, and surmounted with 

 several palmately divided segments. It is a perennial, 

 and the old fronds are generally much thicker than 

 the young ones. I have some very thin, quite trans- 

 lucent specimens from Sweden. But my British and 

 Spitsbergen plants are thicker, like our American 

 forms. 



It is of a dark red or wine color. It grows on 

 rocks, and on the Fucus, and on stems of Laminana^ 



