138 SEA-WEEDS. 



length from one to fourteen inches, but a common 

 specimen would about cover the hand. Some- 

 times they hang in crowded clusters in the manner 

 called by botanists imbricated, that is, lying over 



each other like the tiles of a house. The branchlets 

 are all thickened and rounded at the end. It is a 

 thicker and more juicy sea-weed while young than 

 most of the red kinds, often iridescent, and very 

 brittle. It is in colour of a yellowish or purplish 

 red, being of so yellow a tint when growing in 

 places exposed to the sun, that one unaccustomed 

 to the marine plants, would probably place it with 

 the olive series. There is also a variety which is 

 quite green, and one which is yellow. This latter 

 variety is common on the English coast, and grows 

 in dense erect tufts in shallow pools much exposed 

 to the light, while the plant in its usual form 



