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torn by the rude waves, and we rarely find a specimen 

 in a perfect state. The colour is clear olive yellow ; 

 the root is a mass of round strong branching fibres, the 

 stem as thick as a small goose-quill, naked in its lower 

 part for the length of two to four inches, then clothed 

 with leaflets without a rib, four inches long, after which 

 the frond begins, and varies from three to twenty feet 

 in length, the margin plaited and split here and there 

 like a frond of hart's-tongue fern. The fructification 

 is microscopic, formed on the leaflets, which appear, 

 when in fruit, as if partially covered with a brown 

 crust. This crust consists of dense masses of slender 

 transparent spore-cases, on a stalk containing four 

 spores set in a cruciform manner. 



The plant is eaten in Ireland, Scotland, Denmark, 

 and the Faroe Islands, and has various household 

 names — " Badderlocks," " Henware," " Honeyware," 

 and "Murlins." Tour other species are natives of 

 America and of Asia. 



LAMIXABIA. 



(The name is from lamina, a "thin plate," iu allusion to the flat frond.) 



Seven species of this magnificent plant belong to 

 the British coast : our commonest are the three we 

 find in every bay. "We drag it up from the ebb of the 

 tide — a treasure for the naturalist and conchologist. 

 "We watch it in its deep shadowy forest life, as we 

 near the shore and glide into smooth clear water : it 

 is a cover for the rock-fish, a lurking-place for Crabs ; 

 a world of life we dream not of, until the eye is 

 educated to read the pages of the mighty deep. 



H 2 



