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ULVA montana.
R e d Mountain L a v e r .
CRYPTOGAMIA Algce.
Gen. Char. Frond membranous or gelatinous. Seeds
solitary, scattered throughout its substance, under
the cuticle.
Spec. Char. Frond leathery, dark red, of numerous,
ascending, rounded, flattish, finely granulated lobes.
Syn. Ulva montana. Lightf. 973. Huds. 652. With,
v. 4. 122. Hull. 314.
w E have authentic specimens, from the Rev. Dr. Burgess
and his son, of this curious plant from the hills of Dumfriesshire.
Lightfoot, who alone has described it, for other authors
only copy him, says it grows on the ground, amongst
grass and moss, on the sides of mountains in Skye, Ross-
shire, &c., and that ei the Highlanders wash it, and rub it between
their hands into some water, so as to make a thin
pulpy mixture, and with this they purge their calves.” It is
called Mountain Dulse, and has the smell, with much of the
appearance, of Fucus palmatus, t. 1306, though sufficiently
different from that submarine plant in character, as well as in
station.
The fronds are of a deep blood-red, with a tinge of dull
green here and there, and lie on the ground, according to
Lightfoot, without visible roots. They consist of several
ascending, flattish, rounded, occasionally notched, lobes,
which support each other, and differ in breadth from half an
inch to 2 or 3 inches. Their substance when moistened is
rather coriaceous, but soft and pulpy, besprinkled internally
with fine granulations, which though immersed in the substance,
project so as to raise the cuticle into minute points,
that give a roughness to the surface. The plant before us resembles
in habit and mode of growth the Tremella Nostoc,
t. 461, but seems essentially different, as having the generic
«haracter of Ulva.