Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/253

202, exquisite plants for microscopic study, are also scattered about in the lowest levels, though not often uncovered; and the fissures which penetrate the stone are well fringed with Delesseria alata, Dasya coccinea, Chylocladia articulata, Ptilota plumosa, and other shade-loving species, that grow in dense mossy tufts. The only living specimen that I found at Weymouth of Delesseria sanguinea, was growing in one of these clefts, where, also, small and brightly-coloured specimens of Phyllophora rubens occur;—a plant which is obtained much more abundantly, and of far greater dimensions, by the dredge. This is an Alga of much value for the Aquarium. It is elegant in form and colour; it bears confinement perfectly, and throws off a large quantity of oxygen; besides which it is almost always studded with multitudes of parasitic animals, particularly the smaller Zoophytes, and the branching Bryozoa.

The higher clefts in this vicinity produce Codium tomentosum, rather a rare plant here, which I value because upon it, as on a pasture, I almost always find a lovely little mollusk resembling the Nudibranchs,—Acteon viridis,—whose green coat is spangled over with most lustrous specks of blue and green, as if it were powdered with gems. This plant is useful though not elegant, as it affords a favourite food, not only to this but to other species of phytivorous Mollusks, and it will survive well in a confined vessel of sea-water.

Griffithsia setacea, which I have mentioned above, is a beautiful inhabitant of an Aquarium, and one which thrives in confinement. Professor Harvey speaks of the ease with which it is domesticated (Phycol. Brit.