THE NOTHE LEDGES. 203 



184); and my experience agrees with his. Its attach- 

 ment to the rock is commonly slight, and its hase 

 minute, so that it is sometimes difficult to procure a 

 firmly growing specimen; still, however, it lives and 

 grows, though with harely sufficient base to hold the 

 filaments together. (See Plate II.) 



The surfaces of the rocks are studded between tide- 

 levels with that curious plant Rivularia nitida ; which 

 is sure to attract attention, with its little shining balls 

 of vivid green colour, like school-boys' marbles, lying 

 on little beds of vegetation that adhere to the naked 

 rock. We attempt to take them up, and find them 

 blown bladders of tender gelatinous membrane ! In 

 the early autumn this singular plant occurs in abund- 

 .ance on this spot, though it is said to be rare on 

 our shores generally. 



From this point onwards to the Nothe, the cliff ia 

 more and more precipitous, and the shore incumbered 

 with immense blocks that have fallen from above, and 

 lie confusedly heaped upon each other. The under 

 surfaces of these angular masses occasionally yield fine 

 specimens of some of the more delicate Algce, but, 

 generally speaking, the result scarcely repays the la- 

 bour and difficulty of their examination. 



