SEA-WEEDS. 141 



and the exquisite colour of its most delicately 

 veined leaves, this fucus so much excels all its 

 congeners, that it carries away the palm with no 

 less justice from the vegetables of the ocean, than 

 the rose, the flower of the poets, from its rivals in 

 the garden. 



Equally common, or more so than this, is the 

 Red Oak-leaved Fucus (Delesseria sinuosa), which 

 often clings like some frail red flag around the 

 stems of the tangle. It is, like the last-named 

 species, a tuft of transparent pink leaves, "but its 

 margin is more deeply indented, in some specimens 

 so much so as to have great resemblance in shape 

 to the leaf of our forest tree. It has, too, around 

 its edges a number of small leaflets which suffi- 

 ciently distinguish it. It has always a much 

 broader leaf than the blood-coloured fucus, and is 

 not nearly so brilliant in colour. 



Very frequent on our coasts, also, is the Winged 

 Delesseria (Delesseria alata), which has a broad 

 frond cut deeply into segments and veined like a 

 leaf. This species is transparent and rose-coloured 

 or dark crimson ; while the Proliferous Delesseria 

 (Delesseria Hypoglossum), which is not uncommon 

 on rocks and on the larger sea-weeds, resembles a 

 mass of pale thin pink leaves, with smaller leaflets 

 growing out of them. The frond or leaf is at first 

 entire, several growing from the same base. It is a 

 beautiful, clear, rose-coloured sea-weed, but though 

 not rare is rather less frequent than either of the 

 other species mentioned. 



A very pretty common little marine plant, and 

 one easy of description, is the opuntia-like Cate- 

 nella ( Catenella opuntia). Every one knows that 



