348 THE SEA SHORE 



(b) CHAEALES. 



(c) MTJSCINE.E. 



1. Hepaticse Liverworts. 



2. Musci Mosses. 



(d) VASCULAR CEYPTOGAMS. 



1. Filicales Ferns. 



2. Equisetales Horsetails. 



3. Lycopodiales Club-mosses. 



4. Rhizocarpese Water ferns. 



5. Selaginellales. 

 II. PHANEROGAMIA. 



(a) GYMNOSPEBMIA. 



1. Cycadeae Cycads. 



2. Coniferse Cone-bearing trees. 



(b) ANGIOSPERMS. 



1. Monocotyledons. 



2. Dicotyledons. 



We have now to deal more particularly with those marine Algce 

 that are commonly known as Sea Weeds, and which add so much to 

 the beauty of our rocky coasts. These exhibit such a variety of 

 graceful forms, and such charming colours, that they are admired 

 and treasured by thousands of sea-side ramblers, who are attracted 

 by them merely on account of their pleasing general appearance ; 

 but the naturalist has all this and a great deal more to interest and 

 instruct him, for the sea weeds possess quite a number of peculiar 

 and characteristic features that render them well worthy of a 

 detailed study, especially when they are compared and contrasted 

 with the better-known flowering plants of our fields, woods, and 

 hedgerows. 



It has already been observed that sea weeds differ from the 

 majority of flowering plants in that they have no true roots or 

 leaves, though they are often attached to rocks and other substances 

 by a root-like disc, and sometimes have leaf -like expansions that 

 are supported by stem-like rods. The root-like structures, however, 

 serve simply for the attachment of the plant, and are never con- 

 cerned in the absorption of nourishment like the true roots of 

 higher plants ; and the leaf-like expansions, though they are some- 

 times symmetrical in form, never exhibit the spiral arrangement 

 that obtains in the leaves of higher plants, from which they also 

 differ in function. 



