RED ALGyE. 267 



CALLITHAMNIOlSr CORYMBOStTM, Ag. 



There are very very few more beautiful plants in 

 the sea than this. Carefully laid out, each separate 

 plant upon a paper by itself, it may well claim to 

 rival almost any other for gracefulness of outline, 

 regularity and beauty of branching, and fineness and 

 delicacy of filament. 



It grows upon Zostera, and upon the mud-covered 

 rocks, and piles about the docks, and along the 

 shores, below tide, in little globose tufts, one to two 

 and one-half inches high. Each separate plant in 

 the tuft grows from a minute disk, with a single 

 main stem not much thicker than a hair. This 

 throws out widely, long branches from every side. 

 These branches are bare at the base, but soon branch 

 in the same manner as the main stem, with second- 

 ary branches, which are also bare at the base, and 

 rapidly divide and sub-divide towards the top. 



The ultimate ramuli are very fine and level- 

 topped, so as to make a great number of minute 

 corymbs at the extremity of the branches, hence 

 the name of the species. The general aspect of the 

 plant is that of a miniature, bushy, very symmetri- 

 cal shrub, the pyramidal outline of the end of the 

 branches appearing beyond the general mass. Fig. i, 

 Plate XIX., gives a very excellent representation of it. 



