54: 



URCEOLATA. 



By the side of the plant itself is represented a 

 little object that explains the latter title. This 

 little jar-shaped object is one of the fruits, or 

 ceramidia, as they are learnedly called, much 

 magnified. The word ^^urceolata" signifies 

 pitchered, if we may be permitted to coin an 

 English word corresponding to the Latin. The 

 name Polysiphonia is Greek, and signifies " many 

 siphons," or tubes. The reason for the name is 

 evident on cutting any of the branches trans- 

 versely. It will be then seen that the plant is 

 composed of six tubes arranged round a central 

 aperture ; the branches are jointed, the length 

 of each joint being several times its own width. 



There are twenty-six known British species of 

 this single genus. 



That popular author and extensive traveller, 

 Baron Munchausen, tells us that in one of his 

 journeys he met with a tree that bore a fruit 

 filled interiorly with the best of gin. Had he 

 travelled along our own sea-coasts, or indeed 

 along any sea-coasts, and inspected the vegetation 

 of the waves there, he would have found a plant 

 that might have furnished him with the ground- 

 work of a story respecting a jointed tree, com- 

 posed of wine-bottles, each joint being a separate 

 bottle, filled with claret. Tt is true that the plant 



