PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 71 



The Basking Blenny, Lepidoblennius haplodactylus (fig. 

 37), about four inches long, hops actively over the weed 



Fig. 37. Lepidoblennius haplodactylus, the Basking Blenny from the 

 coralline zone of the ocean reef. 



and rocks as the tide falls, and especially delights to bask 

 in the warm sun. It remains out of water for a long time 

 without inconvenience, clinging to the weed by curious 

 finger-like processes into which the lower portion of the 

 fins have developed. So correctly does the Blenny render 

 both the colour and the pattern of the Coralline that scale, 

 limb and trunk vanish against the harmonious background 

 directly the fish squats down. 



At low spring tides a confused tangle of dwarf kelp, 

 Eklonia (fig. 23), is just exposed. This pliant mass of fronds 

 so break and deaden the force of the waves as to provide 

 shelter in a zone otherwise uninhabitable. The effect of 

 the giant kelp in softening the force of great ocean waves 

 has often been remarked. 1 



As tall unbranched saplings struggle upwards in the 

 forest, so Boltenia australis (fig. 38) rises on a slender, 

 wrinkled stalk among the dwarf kelp. And when a winter 

 gale tears the weed from the rocks and flings it ashore the 

 Boltenia shares its fate. The red and orange head and 

 long stalk of this ascidian recalls a budding tulip of some 

 earthly garden. A small bivalve, Modiola, burrows in the 

 test, and a large orange- coloured Nemertine worm also 



1 Carmichael, Trans. Linn. Soc, xii, 1817, p. 494. 



