S2 CO^IMOX SEAWEEDS. 



because the stem is more opaque and the joints less 

 visible tban in any other species : this is owing to 

 numerous red veins which meander up the stem, par- 

 tially concealing the coloured cell which forms the 

 joint. It is a beautiful specimen, often found on the 

 frond of Chondrus Crisjncs, Codium Tomentosiwi, or on 

 Laminaria also. 



The colour is darkish red, but rapidly becomes a 

 brilliant orange in fresh water, and gives out a rose- 

 coloured powder ; in drying it loses somewhat of its 

 elegance from the pressing together of the delicate 

 tufts of ramuli) which expand under water, and give 

 it the feathery appearance that is so beautiful. We 

 scarcely see the tetraspores, they are so minute, but the 

 favellcB are quite visible when present, generally two 

 berries seated in a tuft of three short ramxili. This 

 species is common on all our coasts. 



CALLiTHAMyi05f Plumula (Feathery Callitham- 

 nion.) — Of all the seaweeds we have yet examined, 

 not one is so lovely under the microscope, or makes a 

 prettier small specimen on paper. It is from two 

 inches to four inches high, grows on the rocks or on 

 other seaweed. The soft red filaments spread out 1 in 

 the water will attract the collector ; but he will never 

 know the prize he has got until, floating it on paper, 

 the carmine hue and the rare beauty of the plant in 

 fruit makes him examine it more closely with a lens 

 or microscope. Then the regularity of the branches, 

 unlike every other species, decides it at once: right 

 and left on every joint a comb-like branchlet springs, 



