116 COMMON SEAWEEDS 



IlAMIKABIA DlGITATA, IjAMIXAEIA BlTLEOSA, IiA- 



minaeia Sacchaeina. — These are the three probably 

 at our feet after every storm. See you that broad 

 smooth brown frond, with a thick round stem, and 

 broad brown ribbons like a flag at the end of it ? that 

 is Laminaria Digitata, or " many-fingered." See you 

 trailing on the sand or curled up between the rocks, 

 a thinner brown frond, with crisped and curled edges, 

 speckled most likely all over with little white shell 

 (serpulcd), torn perhaps from its root ? but if not, 

 then be sure you pause to look at the knobbed and 

 hollow bulb that once fastened it to the rocks below : 

 this is Laminaria Bulbosa. Or do we find a single 

 smooth brown frond, clear, olive, and glossy, perhaps 

 semi-transparent, and with a conical root of twisted 

 strong fibres : that is Laminaria Saccharina. 



Let us take them in order — there is somewhat to 

 sav of each of them, and some others besides. 



Lamixaeia Digitata. — Sea-girdles, Tangle, Sea- 

 staff, Sea-wand, Cows'-tails — These are its familiar and 

 pet names in the fisherman's hut. These great thick 

 stems are cut up by the fisher-boys as handles for 

 knives or hooks. "When it is fresh the blade is stuck 

 in, and as the stem dries it hardens, contracts closely 

 and firmly, embracing the hilt of the blade. It takes 

 some months to be quite firm, and then is hard and 

 shrivelled, very like hart's-horn 



To the naturalist, few plants are richer in subjects 

 of investigation. Surely we find the beautiful trans- 

 parent limpet, called Patella Pellucida, on the shiny 

 trond, more surely still, snugly ensconced in the cave 



