150 Directions for preserving Sea Plants. 



Desmarestia aculeata. Common. I found many specimens at Cairn- 

 lough Bay in May, and a few in June, in its young state, with the 

 tufted fringes. When old, it is very frequent lying in large masses 

 on the shore. Dr Greville accurately remarks, that " old plants do 

 not adhere to paper in drying, and become a little darker. Yoimg 

 plants, still furnished with the pencils of filaments, adhere, and do not 

 change colour at all."— Alg. Br. p. 38. 



I must here remark, that because species are found at the extre- 

 mities of a kingdom, it may be very erroneous to suppose that they 

 are common to all the intermediate parts of the coast. In the Flora 

 Hibernica, for instance, it is stated that Desmarestia ligulata is " not 

 uncommon on any of our shores from the Giant's Causeway to Ban- 

 try Bay." Now, during nearly two months spent this summer at 

 Cairnlough Bay, in which scarcely a day passed that I did not examine 

 some part of the shore, I did not find a fragment of it. I have from 

 time to time gathered marine plants at Larne from my boyhood, and 

 I never saw a trace there of this species, nor do I recollect ever find- 

 ing a specimen of it but one, which I gathered a few years ago at 

 Bangor, on the county Down, side of Belfast Lough. 



Dichhria viridis. — Common at Cairnlough, often lying in masses 

 on the shore as large as, and not unlike a horse's tail. It is to be pre- 

 served in the ordinary way, but, as is properly stated by Dr Greville, 

 " in drying it does not adhere very firmly to paper ;" and the smaller 

 the specimen, this is the more likely to happen ; but I have some spe- 

 cimens of large size, whose branches coming in numerous points of 

 contact with the paper, give to each other such a mutual support that 

 the whole adheres with considerable firmness. It will remain a long 

 time unchanged in fresh water, and is little liable to decay itself though 

 it so readily decomposes other species. 



From a preconceived idea that its solvent powers might have some 

 strong affinity with those of the gastric juice, I was pretty confident 

 that it would possess the quality of reuniting milk, but on making the 

 experiment this summer, I ascertained that it had no such property. 

 When it lies for some time in contact with Plocamium coccineicm 

 Ptilotaplumosa, and some other red-coloured species, it changes them 

 to a bright violet, but this is fugitive, and disappears on drying ; the 

 natural red colour continuing as before. 



Chordaria Jlagelliformis. — Common at Cairnlough' and most 

 parts of our coast. Fine specimens grow on the rocks below Holy- 

 wood near Belfast. I do not know any species which gives out so 

 great a quantity of mucus after being immersed in fresh water as this. 



