MAKESTE B0TAN3T. 65 



waters. Hence its wide dispersion along the shores of the 

 North Atlantic. 



The Compressed Gracilaria {Gracilaria compressa) is 

 restricted, on the contrary, to the coast3 of Europe, and its 

 beautiful companion, the Erect Gracilaria, is found, though 

 irregularly, in the same locality; at one time delighting 

 the searchers after curious specimens, at another sought for 

 in vain, and remaining absent during many years. This 

 peculiarity of profuse recurrence and disappearance may be 

 readily explained. Changes occur in the bed of ocean, 

 produced by inundations of sand and gravel, brought by 

 tributary rivers from the sides of mountains, and over- 

 whelming such marine meadows as spread contiguous. 

 Thus, for example, scarcely has the Rhone passed out of the 

 Lake of Geneva, before its pure waters are filled with sands 

 and sediments by the impetuous Arve, which, descending 

 from the highest Alps, bears in its current the granitic 

 wrecks that are annually brought down by the glaciers 

 from Mont Blanc. 



But wherever found, the Compressed Gracilaria is uni- 

 formly discovered among marine deposits, cast up from deep 

 waters ; and Harvey consequently infers that its growing- 

 place lies hid in the bed of ocean. This curious plant bears 

 a close resemblance to the G. lichenoides of the East Indies ; 

 and Mrs. Griffith, believing the plant to be identical, pre- 

 pared from it a pickle and preserve, which proved excellent 

 in flavour, as well as ornamental, thus proving that our 

 native plant is equally as valuable as its Indian relative. 



Restricted by its geographical distribution to the shores 

 of France and England, the rare and elegant Erect Gracilaria 

 (G. erecta), which is yet scarcely known beyond the pre- 

 cincts of our own country, was long familiar under the 

 manuscript name of Suffocatus, a name designed to express 

 its frequent place of growth in shallow rock pools, where it 

 is found half buried in sand. Occasionally, however, the 

 same plant may be seen peeping forth from amid the sand, 



