MAEINE BOTANY. 61 



diversifies the sterile rocks of Greenland and Iceland, and, 

 though rare in Scotland, is found occasionally in Iona, that 

 celebrated island with its rocks and ruins, and tombs of men 

 who preserved the light of Christianity from being extin- 

 guished amid the darkness of Europe. Associated, therefore, 

 with that sea-girt isle and its memorial tombs, is this small 

 plant, growing at one time on rocks, at another in some 

 clear rock-basin, beside which, as tradition tells, Columba 

 used to watch the setting sun when tinging the waves of the 

 Atlantic with its golden hue. 



Few plants are more sportive in appearance than the 

 maned rhodomenia (JR. jubata), and specimens are found 

 which differ considerably from the general type. It seems, 

 also, as if the same diversity of character was conspicuous 

 throughout, for the plant changes quickly in fresh water ; 

 the dull red colour becomes orange, then brown, and when 

 placed under pressure, though readily adhering to the paper, 

 it shrinks considerably. And yet, however varying in ap- 

 pearance, it is readily distinguished from the hairy rhodo- 

 menia by greater stiffness of texture, and a brighter colour ; 

 it is likewise a summer plant, while the maned attains 

 perfection in winter. 



Found equally on the Atlantic shores of Europe and those 

 of the Mediterranean, its place of growth is the stony bed of 

 rock-pools, into which the tide often rushes with great force ; 

 and hence, probably, the densely-matted and branching 

 fibres, which enable it to adhere firmly to its pebbly or rocky 

 domicile. 



The broadly membranaceous hand- shaped rhodomenia 

 (i?. palmata), with its coriaceous fronds, of which the sub- 

 stance in large varieties is leathery, in smaller rather curious 

 than beautiful, is frequent on the British coasts, and ranges 

 equally throughout Northern and Arctic Europe, progressing 

 from temperate to ice-bound rocks, covered with snow that 

 never melts, beneath which the seal and walrus find a shelter. 

 Yoyagers relate that the hand- shaped rhodomenia spreads 



