in great abundance. It forms extensive banks, on which the 
fronds are heaped together without order, and appear to be kept 
from drifting merely by their weight. The specimens at the 
top of the banks are alone living ; iene underneath, as may be 
at once known by their faded entene and offensive smell, are 
always found dead. In the West of Ireland, where this species 
abounds, it has been used as manure with success, being par- 
ticularly suited to a peaty soil ; but, as it requires to be dredged 
up—its weight and the depth at which it vegetates preventing 
its being drifted in quantity ashore,—the full use is not made of 
it by the peasantry which its value would seem to call for. In 
many districts where lime is scarce, a considerable quantity might 
be obtained by burning this plant. The “coral sand,” so abun- 
dantly employed on the shores of Bantry Bay, owes its fertilizing 
properties to the remains of Cellepores and other zoophytes, of 
whose débris it chiefly consists. 
Fig. 1. MELOBESIA CALCAREA :—the natural size. Portion of a branch, cut 
to show the internal structure :—slightly ee 3. Cells of which the 
frond is composed :—highly magnified. 
