Ocean Gardens. The History of the Marine Aquarium / and the best methods now adopted for its establishment and preservation.

by Henry Noel Humphreys

In [Plate IV.] the principal object is a fasciculus of Taonia atomaria, rising behind the point of rock at the top of the Plate, behind which are two long fronds of the spotted Asperococcus; to the left is the horn-like Gigartina acicularis; and in the front, to the left, the crimson tufts of a pretty weed (Ceramium strictum), which our artist has made too like the Bangia fusco-purpurea.

In [Plate V.] the violet-toned Laurencia pinnatifolia is grouped behind the solid, deep-crimson fronds of Iridæa edulis, which are often perfectly Pear-shaped, like pieces of crimson leather neatly cut in that form; but the action of tides in rough weather often tears the edges, and wears holes through the texture of the plant, as shown in the principal frond. To the left is the bright-crimson Rhodymenia lacinata—one of our most exquisitely beautiful marine Algæ. The fronds are as thin as the finest conceivable tissue, and beautifully transparent, which is shown wherever the lacinations of the edge overlap each other, in which places the double thickness of the texture doubles, at the same time, the intensity of the colour, as indicated in the representation. On the same level, to the right, is a small group of the delicate green Ulva latissima—a plant which has proved useful beyond all others in Aquaria, as throwing off, under the action of the light, a much greater profusion of silvery globules of oxygen than any other species yet known. At the same level still, on the extreme right, is a sprig of the delicately-branched parasite, Polysphonia parasitica, growing on a small mass of pale sulphur-coloured Melobesia lichenoides, the Lichen-like Melobesia. To the extreme left, under the beautiful Rhodymenia, is a small branch of the bright, olive-tinted Ectocarpus tomentosus, looking much like a spray of wild Broom, and immediately below it, a few purple branchlets of Gracilaria confervoides; while in the left foreground lies a pebble, partly covered by a small plant of Zonaria parvula, from beneath which straggles a little branch of the common but pretty Coralline, the Corallina officinalis; and, to the right, a globe of the curious Codium bursa, of the French coast, which might easily be added to our native species in the Aquarium.

Plate III.

1. Porphyra vulgaris.

2. Dumontia filiformis.

3. Asperococcus Turneri.

4. Rytiphlæa pinastris.

5. Chrysymenia rosea.

6. Peyssonetia Dubyi.