This little plant here figured, was first described by Grateloup, 
im the year 1807, under the specific name which I adopt in pre- 
ference to that proposed by Agardh twenty years subsequently. 
By the term ocellatum, Grateloup no doubt intended to allude 
to the eye-like spots caused by the density of the ramuli at the 
tips of the branches. ‘The branches, indeed, when the plant is 
displayed on paper resemble delicate feathers, each marked with 
an eyelet. When growing, Mrs. Griffiths compares them with 
equal propriety, to the brushes with which bottles are cleaned 
Dasya ocellata was added to the British Flora by Mrs. 
Griffiths, who found it plentifully frmging the base of the small 
harbour-pier at Torquay, in which situation it is constantly 
covered with mud, from which obscurity, a less zealous and 
acute observer, would not have redeemed it. It can only be 
approached in a boat, at extreme low water. In this situation it 
has continued to grow for several years. Of recent date it has 
been discovered in two or three Irish localities, at either side of 
the kingdom. From one of these, Balbriggan, the specimen 
here represented, and which I owe to the kindness of Miss 
Gower, was procured. It is of the largest size that I have seen, 
the majority of British individuals bemg not above an inch and 
a half in length, and either quite simple or scarcely branched. 
Fig.1. Dasya ocELLaTA; a tuft:—natural size. 2. Portion of a branch 
3. Ramulus with pods; both magnified. 
