Figs. 189 & 190. RHODYMENIA PALMATA. 
Colour, A dull purplish, or brownish-red. 
SuhstaJice. When young, membranaceous ; afterwards leathery. 
Character of Frond. A flat, ribless, broadly wedge-shaped expansion, much and irregularly 
divided into numerous, jagged, branching divisions ; or else repeatedly branched in a 
forked manner {dichotomously). Margins smooth (entire), or fringed with leaf-like 
formations. Eoot a disc. 
Measurement. From 2 to 20 inches long. 
Fructification. Only one kind known. Tetraspores forming cloud-like patches ; dispersed over 
the surface. 
Habitat. Our coasts everywhere. On rocks and the stems of Lam. digitata^ &c. Very 
common. 
Fig. 189 represents the commonest form. In Fig. 190 we have, in the narrower specimen, 
Var. /3 Sarniensis; in the broader, Var. y soholifera. And many intermediate varieties occur. 
Dr. Harvey assures us, that once seen and tasted^ no one can fail to recognise R. palmata 
again. It is the Dulse of the Scotch ; the Dillisk of the Irish ; and is eaten either raw or 
cooked, in many places, by the country people. At Miltown Malbay (W. Ireland), and else- 
where, they boil or stew it with a little dripping or butter, and pepper, into a savoury mess, 
like stewed cabbage. 
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