410 MARINE PLANTS. 



green sea-weed but also brown and red thrown up. On 

 a ramble along the rocky shore at the Cap d'Antibes, 

 when the sea is calm, ■\-ou will be struck by the same 

 variety in the colours of the marine vegetation, and by 

 the wealth of their forms. Many of the plants can be 

 reached b\' hand and pulled from the stones on which 

 they are growing. Branched green threads predominate 

 near the surface of the water ; they hang down loosely 

 in thick wisps when the tide leaves them bare , and 

 separate again into fine threads when a new wave reaches 

 them. The\' belong to the genus Clavdophora (Fig. p. Ill) 

 which is here represented b\' numerous species. In shallow 

 places grows the ribbon-like Ulva, a green Alga on 

 which the^- often serve 0}'sters in Ital)-. Manj' other 

 brown plants are found near the water's edge but they 

 are different from those which we meet with on the 

 coasts of the Baltic and the North Sea. There we find 

 the various species of Fiicuf, Bladder-wracks with tough 

 leather\' forked and ribbon-shaped thallus. Here the 

 bus]i\' Cvfloscira (Fig. p. 1.^7) «ith cylindrical branches, 

 grows abundanth'. In the shad\' crevices of the rocks 

 we find beautiful red species of varied and often elegant 

 forms. These are all phmts whicla we class together 

 as vMgae. The other divisions of the plant world are 

 oiil\' represented by a iew submarine species, such for 

 instance as the Pasidoiiia oifaiiira, a Ligurian (xrass- 

 wrack that predominates on the Riviera, often form- 

 ing whole meadows in the shallow ba^s of the Medi- 

 terranean sea. With tliis, here and there, is found the 

 small-leaved Zosicra marina which bears tlie unpoetical 



