OLIVE COLORED ALG^ 109 



SMh-oxA^x.— MYRIONEM^. 

 Qsm^.—LEATBESIA, Gray. 



Leathesia tuberformis, Gray. 

 I suppose it was thought a great compliment to 

 a brother naturalist, to name this plant for him. 

 But one cannot help thinking, that one would 

 rather lend his name to some of the more 

 interesting and beautiful of the "flowers of the 

 sea." Still, this plant has beauties of no uncommon 

 kind, as you would see, if you were to take a very 

 thin sKce of it, and put it under the lenses of a micro- 

 scope. It is also very widely distributed, being 

 found in almost every sea, and on the most distant 

 shores of the whole globe. So this humble and homely 

 plant, carries the name of the Reverend Naturalist, 

 G. R. Leathe, far and wide. To the unaided eye, it 

 looks as it lies fastened there upon the rocks, or 

 resting its green lobes upon the fronds of Chondrus 

 crispus, so nearly like an unripe tomato, that you 

 are inclined to doubt if it can be an Alga at aU, 

 and are more than half disposed to believe, that it 

 must be some succulent vegetable which Neptune is 

 preparing for his board. It makes its appearance in 

 April or May, and is ripe by August or September, 

 and then soon disappears. 



