It ii'
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adheres, or the depth of water where it vegetates. It equally
infests the Fuci, which grow between tide-marks, covering with
a shaggy brown fleece those that occur near high-water mark,
and those that prefer a deeper level; and the Laminaria that
are never exposed to the air. It thus extends nearly throughout
the whole belt occupied by sea plants. Nor is it confined to
open sea shores; it frequents estuaries, and ascends tidal rivers
for a considerable distance, growing either on Fucus vesiculosus
or on submerged wood-work, and even on mud. Towards the
close of the summer the tufts become detached, and float about
in large masses, and at length are stranded in broad belts along
the coast. On these, decaying under the atmosphere. Captain
Carmichael first detected the curious Sphmrozyga Carmichaelii
already figured in our first volume. (PI. CXIII.)
I have no hesitation in uniting the F. compactus and F.ferrugi-
neus of Continental authors, with our F. litoralis. The characters
attributed to those forms depend on age, and are gradually assumed
as the plant passes its maturity and tends to decay. In
the first stage of its decline it frequently becomes much matted
into ropy strings, and thus becomes F. compactus ■, and eventually
assumes a rusty colour, and becomes F. ferrugineus.
Fig. 1. Tuft of E ctocarpus l itoralis growing on a fragment of
ratus:— o f the natural size. 3. Part of a fertile branch. 3. Eamuli from
the same:— both magnified in different degrees.
'■ iiii