118 BRITISH MARINE ALG. 
of the tufted branches bear to the eye-like spots on the peacock’s tail- 
feathers, is a small and rare species, seldom more than 2in. high. It 
grows on muddy rocks at extreme low-water mark. The ramuli, which 
are very abundantly produced on each side of the stems, are so fine and so 
Closely set, that a satisfactory figure of the living plant is hardly possible ; 
I therefore present my readers with the representation of a highly magnified 
branchlet (Fig. 109). In this species the ramuli are forked, and are of 
extreme tenuity. Lanceolate stichidia, which point upwards in the 
direction of the main stem, are seated on the upper side of the ramuli. 
D. arbuscula, or the shrub-like dasya, is another small and rare species, 
about 4in. high. It is excessively branched and bushy, the branches being 
densely clothed with forked-spreading ramuli, which are so crowded at the 
tips as to give the outline of the plant the appearance of a bunch of 
crimson feathers. I have taken beautiful specimens of this species on the 
shaded side of the great Mewstone Rock, near Plymouth. Fine specimens 
are sometimes taken on the Irish and Scottish coasts. In this country 
D. ocellata rarely produces ceramidia, but D. arbuscula is as frequently 
found with capsules as with stichidia, but the form of the latter is very 
distinct in these species; those of D. ocellata being long, narrow, and 
drawn out to a fine point; while in D. arbuscula they are oblong, obtuse at 
the tips, and terminate with a mucro or short spine. The ceramidia of 
this genus are very pretty objects. They differ considerably in form in the 
various species. That represented at Fig. 110 is the characteristic capsule 
of the Jersey species, D. Venusta, now D. corymbifera. It is produced, 
as I have said, from the branched ramuli, and is a transformation of one of 
the branches on the lower side of the tufts, the spores being developed 
from the endochrome or colouring matter of the joints of the ramulus. D. 
Venusta, or D. corymbifera, is a highly beautiful species. It is abundant 
in the Channel Islands, and occasionally cast ashore on the coast of 
Sussex. D. punicea, the purple dasya, is another rarity, and is also of 
small size. I have never found it growing, but have picked it up on the 
shore near Brighton, where it has also been taken by my friend Mrs. 
Merrifield, one of the most accomplished algologists in England. D. Catt- 
lowie is unknown to me, and, so far as I know, has been met with in the 
Island of Jersey only, where it was discovered by Miss Cattlow, in 1858. 
The Order Corallinacee, so called from the coral-like appearance of many 
of these vegetable productions, contains a large number of very remarkable 
plants, all of which have the singular property of absorbing carbonate 
of lime into their tissues. Some of them are filiform or stringlike, and are 
branched in a pinnated or dichotomous manner, the wing-like or forked 
branches being composed of a succession of chalky articulations. The 
root of these is an expanded crust-like disc, which is firmly attacked by 
its under surface to the rocky sides of tide pools. Other branching species 
are parasitic on various kinds of seaweeds, while several of the lowest 
forms of this order are thin, stony incrustations, spreading over the surface 
of rocks ; and some others, of a similar structure, are found firmly attached 
