The ocean / By P.H. Gosse.

  • Gosse, Philip Henry, 1810-1888.
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The ocean / By P.H. Gosse. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    61/388 (page 43)
    for singularity or beauty, and then dismiss these in- teresting tribes. The common Sea-thong (Himan- thalia loreaJ, so generally distributed, is worthy of observation on account of its curious mode of growth. From a shallow cup affixed to the rock by a short foot-stalk, spring two or three long olive-coloured straps, each of which becomes divided into two, and each of these into two more, in succession ; these attain commonly the length of eight or ten feet, and have been asserted to reach even twenty feet. The thongs have been usually considered the fronds of this species, but Dr. Greville thinks that the sin- gular cup is the true fronde, and the thongs the re- ceptacles of the seed greatly lengthened. The surface of the thong is studded with tubercles, from which are discharged the seeds accompanied with much mucus, through the pores. The cup of this species has been occasionally observed on exposed rocks, swollen into a large hollow smooth black ball, ex- actly round, perhaps caused by the heat of the sun rarifying and expanding the contained air, or being perhaps the indication of a diseased state of the plant. A very remarkable form, and one of singular beauty, is presented by the Peacock’s tail (Padina pavoniaJ, a species not uncommon, attached to rocks at the bottom of still, and generally shallow marine pools. The fronds rise in form of a rounded fan, of a yellowish-olive tint, elegantly marked with concentric zones or bands, of a dark brown. One side, and sometimes both, is generally hoary, as if dusted with powder, and the outer edge is deli-