40 



COLLECTING SEA-WEEDS. 



slaty rock may Tbe wrenched off, which are very 

 productive. 



Collecting Sea-weeds. — Thus armed, we sally 

 forth, choosing for our explorations a spot where 

 low dark ledges of shelving rock run out into the 

 sea, full of clefts and fissures half concealed by 

 Bladder- weed and Tangle ; or where the solid rock 

 shoots up in irregular angular masses, scooped and 

 hollowed into numberless little pools and basins, 

 with dark, slimy caverns here and there, and 

 rifts of shingly sand between. An unpractised 

 foot would find the walking precarious and dan- 

 gerous, for the rocks are rough and sharp ; and the 

 dense matting of black Bladder-weed with which 

 they are covered, conceals many abrupt and deep 

 clefts beneath its slimy drapery. These fissures, 

 however, are valuable to us. We lift up the hang- 

 ing mass of olive-weed {Fucus) from the edge, and 

 find the sides of the clefts often fringed with the 

 most delicate and lovely forms of sea- weed ; such, 

 for example, as the winged Delesseria {D, alata) 

 which grows in thin, much-cut leaves of the richest 

 crimson hue, and the feathery Ptilota [P, plumosa) 

 of a duller red. Beneath the shadow of the coarser 

 weeds, as well as in open pools, delights also to 

 grow the Ghondrus^ in the form of little leafy 

 bushes, each leaf widening to a flattened tip. When 

 viewed growing in its native element, this plant is 

 particularly beautiful ; for its numerous leaves grovf 

 with refulgent reflections of azure, resembling the 

 colour of tempered steel. This weed when dried 

 is useful for making jellies, and constitutes the 

 Carrageen Moss of the shops. 



We may observe among the sea-weeds many 

 tufts of a small species, whose leaves are much and 



