72 HANDY BOOK OP 



shores of Europe, is also common to our coasts, on rocks and 

 mussels, in places subject to the ebbing of the tide. Beau- 

 tiful in its watery locality, and affording a pleasing contrast 

 to such green sea-weeds as grow contiguous ; its brownish 

 red branches appear, when covered with antheridia, as if 

 crowned with tufts of golden fruit. 



Another of this interesting brotherhood, the parasitic 

 Polysipho7iia i grows, as its name implies, on different marine 

 productions : such especially as take root at the limit of low- 

 water mark ; occasionally even at the depth of fifteen 

 fathoms. Hence it is that the Parasitica remained un- 

 noticed, till within a comparatively recent period, and can 

 hardly be obtained except by dredging ; for who may readily 

 examine the perpendicular sides or ledges of marine rocks ? 

 Yet, were it possible to explore the growing-places of this 

 interesting species, we should often find them on marine 

 ledges, covered with the Corallina officinalis, to which they 

 cling like the lesser Dodder, that bright red cobweb-looking 

 plant, which conceals, as with a gauze mantle, bushes of 

 juniper or gorse. I have seen that plant on the wild sea- 

 cliffs of Mort — a place rarely visited, and yet but a few miles 

 distant from Ilfracombe ; and deep beside the basement of 

 these cliffs grew, most probably, its oceanic representative ; 

 for the parasitic Polysiphonia extends from the Orkneys to 

 Cornwall, and is nowhere more abundant than on the Ayr- 

 shire coast at Arran, and along the shores of Devonshire. 

 At Sidmouth, also, and at Torbay, on rocks, and stones, and 

 smaller Algae, grows the elongated, a beautiful marine plant, 

 which equally diversifies the coasts of France and the Adri- 

 atic. Deciduous trees, when seen in spring and autumn, 

 are not more dissimilar in their appearance than specimens 

 of the elongated when collected at different seasons. In 

 spring, and during the early months of summer, its branches 

 are clothed with numerous pencils of delicate soft rose -tinted, 

 or blood-red ramuli ; at a later period these fall away, and 

 such plants as are collected in September or October are 



