OCEAN GxVRDENS; 



pictures they do not surpass in strangeness the 

 wonders of the world beneath the sea. 



On the land, we have, as the ordinary aspect of 

 Nature/ the green herbaceous mantle of the earth 

 below the eye, and the azure sky above ; while a 

 spectator, standing beneath the water on the ocean 

 floor, would see these features more than reversed : 

 he would see above him a liquid atmosphere of green, 

 and below, an herbage of red or of purple hue, 

 exhibiting strange yet exquisite forms, such as no 

 terrestrial vegetation displays. [Roseate shrubs of 

 jointed stone, and arborets of filmy glass, and crea- 

 tures full of active, energetic life, whose forms are 

 stranger still, both in structure and in appearance ; 

 mere worms, whose colours are gorgeous as the 

 tints of the butterfly's wing, or the peacock's tail, 

 or the humming-bird's breast. 



"What scenery is formed by that translucent 

 and miniature forest of Delesseria sanguinea^ how 

 lovely in its tones of soft rich crimson ; and those 

 fan-like shrubs, in crisply graceful tufts, the bright 

 and singular Fadina pavonia; and the tree-like 

 masses of Callithamrdon arhiisciila^ and the delicate 

 Ftilota plumosa, and the purple-tinted Corallines^ 

 forming those 



'^Arborets of jointed stone." 



And then the high waving fronds of the grandly 



12 



