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. It ig true that the plant 



