80 HA^DY BOOK OP 



cation. No other British species regularly exhibits the 

 same peculiarity ; and equally curious is the fact that each 

 cell is of extraordinary length — those in the lower portion 

 being occasionally more than an inch in length, and bearing 

 a great resemblance to the articulations of some grasses. 

 This peculiarity of structure has, doubtless, an important 

 reference to the watery locality of the pellucida, which ex- 

 tends throughout the Atlantic shores of Europe and America, 

 the Mediterranean, and Cape of Grood Hope. 



Our rocky shores are also varied with the beautiful rock- 

 adhering Cladophora, which extends throughout every Euro- 

 pean coast, even into the belt of the Laminari^e. Few 

 plants are more dependant for their greenness andluxuriance 

 on the ocean sites which they chance to occupy. Near high- 

 water mark they present the aspect of plain-looking plants, 

 closely tufted, and of a cloudy and disagreeable greyish- 

 green ; but when growing in deep water they are beautiful, 

 and reflect glaucous tints, and, according to their ocean site, 

 so is their power to attract the eye. Specimens gradually 

 increase in luxuriance, and in the depth and purity of their 

 rich dark-green hue, as they recede from high- water ; and, 

 were it possible to follow them where, as yet, the foot of 

 man has never trod, we should, perhaps, find that none of 

 their ocean brethren may vie with the rock-adhering Clado- 

 phora. Those ancient botanists, Theophrastus and Dios- 

 corides, though, in general, regardless of marine plants, 

 mentioned this handsome species as diversifying the coasts 

 of Lesbos, and those of the Mediterranean over-against 

 Cyprus. And still the same plant, with its deep-green tufts, 

 and short filaments, curled and matted together, is seen in 

 the same locality, as also on the Atlantic shores of Europe, 

 and the Baltic. But, though attaining its full development 

 in clear bright waters, the rock-adhering Cladophora was 

 discovered by Hawkins, on submarine peat, at Birturbui 

 Bay, in Connemara ; it grew in patches on the naked sur- 

 face, just within the limit of the tide — a strange habitat, 



