DETACHING SEA-WEEDS. 27 



as thin as silver-paper, all puckered and folded at the 

 edge, and generally torn and fretted into holes. {See 

 Plate III). It is abundant in the hollows of the 

 rocks between tide-marks, extending and thriving 

 even almost to the level of high water, and bearing 

 with impunity the burning rays of the summer's sun, 

 provided it be actually covered with a stratum of 

 water, even though this be quite tepid. It therefore 

 is more tolerant than usual of the limited space 

 and profuse light of an Aquarium, where it will 

 grow prosperously for years, giving out abundantly its 

 bubbles of oxygen gas all day long. It is readily 

 found, bnt owing to the excessive slenderness of its 

 attachment to the rock, and its great fragility, it is 

 not one of the easiest to be obtained in an available 

 state. The Enter omorphce have the same qualities 

 and habits, but their length and narrowness make 

 them less elegant. The Cladophorm, however, are 

 desirable ; they are plants of very simple structure, 

 consisting of jointed threads, which grow in dense 

 brushes or tufts of various tints of green. Some of 

 them are very brilliant; the commonest kind is C. 

 rupestris, which is of a dark bluish-green; it is 

 abundant on all the ledges in this neighbourhood. 

 iSee Plate III). 



These are a few of the sorts of sea-plants which 

 are met with in the situations I have described. In 

 order to transfer them to an Aquarium, a portion of 

 the rock on which they are growing must be removed. 

 These plants have no proper roots, and therefore can- 

 not be dug up and replanted like an orchis or a violet, 

 but adhere by a minute disk to the surface of the rock. 



