188 * BEAUTY OF SEA-WEEDS. 



wildest and most extravagant that imagination could 

 paint, drew not upon the resources of his prolific 

 fancy for imagery here, but was well content to jot 

 down the simple lineaments of nature, as he saw her 

 in plain homely England. 



It is a beautiful and fascinating sight for those who 

 have never seen it before, to see the little shrubberies 

 of pink coralline, — the "arborets of jointed stone," — 

 that fringe these pretty pools. It is a charming sight 

 to see the crimson banana-like leaves of the Deles- 

 seria waving in their darkest corners; and the purple 

 fibrous tufts of Polysiphonia and Ceramia, ^^fine as 

 silkworm's thread." But there are many others which 

 give variety and impart beauty to these tide-pools. 

 The broad leaves of the Ulva, finer than the finest 

 cambric, and of the brightest emerald-green, adorn 

 the hollows at the highest level ; while at the lov/est 

 wave tiny forests of the feathery Ptilota and Dasya^ 

 and large leaves, cut into fringes and furbelows, of rosy 

 Rhodymenice. All these are lovely to behold, but I think 

 I admire as much as any of them, one of the com- 

 monest of our marine plants, Chondrus crispus. It 

 occurs in the greatest profusion on this coast, in 

 every pool between tide-marks ; and every-where, — 

 except in those of the highest level, where constant 

 exposure to light dwarfs the plant, and turns it of a 

 dull umber-brown tint, — it is elegant in form and 

 brilliant in colour. The expanding fan-shaped 

 fronds, cut into segments, cut, and cut again, make 

 fine bushy tufts in a deep pool, and every segment of 

 every frond reflects a flush of the most lustrous azure, 

 like that of a tempered sword-blade. Professor 



