XIV 
INTRODUCTION. 
find all manner of good things growing in the neighbourhood, seeing that the finest red sea- 
weeds also love this deep water. Not that you must expect to see this lower region a fairy land 
of rosy colour, remember — often not half as much so as a wreck-scattered shore like that at 
St. Mary’s. A delusion on this subject is encouraged by picture-books, from which the loving 
disciple must awake. Few red plants are as bright when growing as when laid out, though this 
rule, like all others, has its exceptions ; but it is true of most of the species which afterwards 
prove so brilliant. Delesseria sanguinea^ for instance (now Wormskioldia sanguinea^ Fig. 169), 
does not acquire its fine cactus-hue till after it has been exposed for an hour or two to the air ; and 
Dasya coccinea (Fig. 135), and Plocamium coccineum (Fig. 178), take a longer time still before 
they change from their original reddish brown to the cochineal tint their name implies. To find 
the former plant, therefore, you must look out for a delicately transparent and exquisitely 
formed leaf, rather than expect to be guided to it at once by a startling blaze of colour. 
Besides all which, the beauties, whether bright or dingy, often hide; and you will have to 
inspect the sides of the rocks most carefully, lifting up the great tangle plants to peep under- 
neath them, if you would hope to see anything worth having. The most lovely of Callithamnions 
looks but a miserable little dab of pinkish mud, as you see it on a rock when the tide has left 
it, for how can it float and show itself there ? And it is only by knowing . and practically 
believing that everything is so??iething, that you are preserved from passing by many such 
minute valuables in such situations. 
In truth, with all due deference to bright pictures of deep sea-rocks, such Laminarian zone 
ground as one can get to, is often anything but attractive in general appearance. Nay, it is 
sometimes particularly dismal and gloomy-looking, owing to the masses of olive plants that 
abound there, and the saturated hue of the rocks. How it may be further down still, one 
cannot pretend to say. We shall know some day, perhaps, when diving for sea-weeds has 
become a fashionable amusement, and an indispensable part of an algologist’s education, and 
collectors go forth singing, 
“Come with me, and we will go 
Where the rocks of coral grow." 
But to return to our subject. When low-water mark affords you a long, flat, rocky level 
to walk upon, the case is decidedly better ; for there you are sure to find pools, and some of 
these will be crystal basins, not thickly crowded and confused with plants, like those higher up, 
but exquisitely clean and refined, lined wdth a lilac-pink Melohesian incrustation perhaps, 
or graced at the bottom or sides by a few elegant tufts of, now and then, the exquisite little 
Polysiphonia parasitica (Fig. 128), or the deep green Bryopsis plumosa (Fig. 286), displaying 
their feathery forms to the best advantage. “ Exceeding in beauty the plants of the earth,^' 
exclaims Dr. Johnston, in a moment of enthusiasm, when speaking of the vegetation of rock- 
pools, at the conclusion of his Botany of the Eastern Borders. And the compliment has its 
value, though one knows the words were not intended to be taken au pied de la lettre. 
Now, on leaving the Laminarian zone of Filey Bridge, you have the opportunity rarely 
afforded by one mass of rocks, of ascending gradually by a succession of, for the most part, 
square-cut levels, or ledges, each easy to walk upon, and abounding in pools, up to extreme 
high-water mark on the top ; one part of which is only completely submerged at spring-tides, 
though always within the influence of spray. And here, as you walk over the fine old riddled 
