08 COMMON SEAWEEDS. 



HIMANTHALIA LOEEA. 



(From the Greek words meaning "strap" and ,! branched.") 



The frond properly so called in this plant is an 

 olive green cup or top, from the centre of which 

 springs several long, branched, strap-shaped filaments, 

 from a quarter to half an inch wide, and from two to 

 ten, or even twenty, feet long. These straps are 

 dotted with pores, which are apertures by which the 

 spores escape, for at each dot there is a large cell or 

 conceptacle filled with transparent jointed threads, 

 amidst which are three or four olive-coloured spores. 



The substance of these strap-shaped filaments is a 

 watery gelatine transversed by confervoid threads. 

 If cast ashore, we find this covered with yellow dots, 

 and the mucus of the plant cast forth with the spores 

 as in a death struggle, as the battle of wind and waves 

 have torn it from the rocks below. 



Himanthalia is common everywhere. Children call 

 it " sea-thongs." 



CHOEDA PILTJM. 



(Name signifying "a cord.") 



Generic character. — Frond simple, cylindrical, tu- 

 bular ; the cavity is divided by partitions into separate 

 chambers. We must cut it longitudinally to see this, 

 and make a transverse section to see why it is so slip- 

 pery. In doing so we perceive that the substance of 

 the cord consists of large cells, whilst the outer mem- 

 brane is clothed with pellucid hairs of gelatinous, 



