MARINE BOTATTT. 67 



with the Spotted Nitrophyllum (N. punctatum), either in 

 size or hue. That plant, "beloved the most" by those who 

 seek for marine productions, either in their ocean sites or 

 sterile growing-places, is common to the coasts of England 

 and Ireland, with those of Scotland, far north as the 

 Orkneys, and attains to a gigantic size at Cushendall Bay, 

 in the west of Ireland. What think you of a sea-plant five 

 feet long by three feet wide, of a delicate rose-pink colour, 

 spotted with capsules and sori of a darker hue ? Such is the 

 Spotted Nitrophyllum, of which mantles might be formed, 

 worthy to adorn the Nereides in their mossy halls, or, in days 

 long past, the sea-green sisters of Cyrene, when beneath the 

 classic waters of Pineus — 



One common work they plied ; their distaffs full 

 With carded locks of blue Milesian wool." 



CHAPTER VIE. 



M Art's finest pencil would but rudely mock 

 The beauteous corals border' d on a rock ; 

 And those grey watery grots he would explore, 

 Small excavations en a rocky shore, 

 That seem like fairy baths or mimic wtlls, 

 Richly emboss' d with choicest weeds and shells, 

 As if her wonders Nature chose to hide, 

 "Where nought invaded but the flowing tide." 



"What see you on this wild sea-rock round which the 

 clear transparent sparkling waters gently swell and ripple ? 

 A specimen of the Corallina officinalis, or medicinal coral, 

 the type of a beauteous family, which has long engaged the 

 attention of naturalists, and whose place in marine botany 

 is now accurately denned. This interesting species forms, 



