218 BRITISH CORALLINES: 



Hab. On rocks and shells between tide-marks, profusely on 

 every part of the British coast. 



Coralline affixed by a spreading calcareous base, from one to 

 four inches in height, of a dull purplish colour when recent, 

 bushy, the primary branches irregular, erect, the secondary plu- 

 mose, pinnate or bipinnate ; joints cylindrical or wedge-shap- 

 ed and somewhat compressed, sometimes twice as long as their 

 diameter, and sometimes not more than equal to it, smooth or 

 blistered ; the shoots sprout from each shoulder of the joints, 

 and the young shoots have usually long, slender, cylindrical 

 joints, while those which terminate the branches are either tip- 

 ped with a little white globular or ovoid tubercular enlargement, 

 or with a row of little white tubercles, arranged in a palmate 

 fashion. 



This description has been derived from what seem to be nor- 

 mal specimens taken from pools of clear water in the rocks of 

 om' shore, whose sides they adorn with their tufted fringes, hang- 

 ing over each other, in the same plumy manner that the Hypna 

 do over the shelving banks of our deans. But on every shore, 

 specimens of the coralline may be gathered which deviate so 

 much from the normal character, and from each other, as to 

 render a general description almost nugatory. " Pro aetate at- 

 que vigore insigniter, et crassitie et elegantia ac fonna, variat 

 hsec corallina, unde multiplicatae Ellisii species, quas interme- 

 dii gradus, in eademque ssepe stripe structuree extrema occur- 

 rentia conjungunt." Pallas. 



The branches are sometimes partially studded over with smooth 

 conoid tubercles, either sessile or raised on a cylindrical pedi- 

 cle. The extremities of the branches are usually terminated 

 with analogous tubercles in the spring season, and from these, 

 after they had been steeped in vinegar, which rendered the whole 

 soft, Ellis squeezed out " little twisted figures," which he has 

 figured with his usual accuracv. I found these capsules, as I 



