LETTERS TO MERRETT. 7 1 



I send you also [several words smeared out\ a little 

 elegant sea plant"* which I pulled from a greater 

 bush thereof which I haue resembling the back bone 

 of a fish. Fucus marinus vertebratus pisciculi spinum 

 referens Icthyorachius or what you thinck fitt. 



And though perhaps it bee not worth the taking 

 notice of formicse arenariae marinse or at least muscus 

 formicarius marinus^i^ yet I obserue great numbers by 

 the seashoare and at yarmouth an open sandy coast, 

 in a sunny day many large and winged ones may bee 

 obserued upo'ti & rising out of the [shoare crossed out] 

 wet sands when the tide falls away. 



Notonecton an insect that swimmeth on its back [see 

 Note 98] & mentioned by Muffettus may be obserued 

 with us. 



those mentioned belong, but although our exposed coast-line is not favour- 

 able to such growths, there are a few common species of Hydroid Zoophytes 

 which abound here, and to these, fortunately, Browne's specimens appear 

 to belong. What he calls the " Sea-perriwig " is doubtless Sertularia 

 operculata, Lin., sometimes known as "Sea-hair," a very common and 

 widely dispersed species. 



"^ The little " Fucus," which he compares to^he backbone of a fish, is 

 ptohtOalj Hulecium halecinum, Lin., the " Herring-bone Coral " of Ellis, 

 one of the most common Zoophytes on our coast. The " Abies," of which 

 he suggests at p. 75 that this may be a " difference," is most likely 

 Sertularia abietina, Lin., which this species resembles, but is less regularly 

 pinnate ; this may have led him to suppose that the "sprouts, wings, or 

 leaves" may have fallen off. The Fucus marinus is most likely Fucus 

 serratus. 



115 Swarms of Ants and Flies are no uncommon sight along the sea- 

 shore at certain seasons of the year, and under the conditions which 

 Browne describes. The Pagets ("Nat. Hist, of Great Yarmouth") 

 mention that the fly, Actora mstuum, is common on the beach at high- 

 water mark ; but Mr. Verrall writes me that there are many others 

 likely to be thus met with, such as Orygina hictuosa and Limosina zostera, 

 widely divergent species. In his "Journal of a Tour" into Derbyshire, 

 Dr. Edward Browne, in crossing the sands of the Wash, mentions his 

 satisfaction at the absence of the swarms of flies " with which all the fenne 

 countrys are extremely pestered." See also Note no supra. 



G 



