Dr Greville's Algce Britaimicce. . 361 



forms the first part of the volume. The more detailed portion of the work, 

 devoted to British species, is wholly in English, and is particularly intend- 

 ed for the use of our fair and intelligent countrywomen, as a '' guide to 

 some of the wonders of the Great Deep." To the ladies, indeed, marine 

 botany is indebted, as Dr Greville remarks, for much of what is known 

 upon the subject ; and Mrs Griffiths and Miss Hutchins have received the 

 highest honour which one botanist can bestow on another, by having their 

 names adopted as generic appellations. 



Though " individuals do unquestionably exist," says Dr Greville, " who 

 in the pride of their philosophy pronounce botany to be a frivolous pur- 

 suit — or a profitless science, whose chief feature is a lexicon of barbarous 

 terms — or a pretty lady-like amusement;" yet it *' is now becoming 

 a favourite study and an elegant recreation, without meeting with more 

 than an occasional sneer from the class above-mentioned, or a faint eja- 

 culation from the matron of the old school, who remembers to have been 

 told in her early days, that young ladies, at least, were more profit- 

 ably employed in adding to the family receipt-book, and confining their 

 natural history to indescribable performances in cross-stitch." Dr Gre- 

 ville might have added, as a conclusive answer to all such observations 

 regarding the utility of the study of the minutest objects in nature, 

 made generally by persons supremely ignorant of physical science, that 

 what Infinite Wisdom and Beneficence has created and supports, cannot 

 be accounted unworthy the notice of such a being as Man. And it is the 

 opinion of a celebrated philosopher (Dugald Stewart,) that ** the external 

 objects with which we are surrounded, are so accommodated to our capa- 

 cities of enjoyment, and the relations which exist between our frame and 

 that of external nature are so numerous, in comparison of what we per- 

 ceive in the case of all other animals, as to authorize us to conclude, that 

 it was chiefly with a view to our happiness that the arrangements of this 

 lower world were made." We take leave further to remark, that, in addi* 

 tion to the intellectual pleasure connected with the study of nature, so elo- 

 quently set forth by Dr Greville in his introductory pages, and which studies, 

 besides, irresistibly lead to the contemplation of " the glory of that Al- 

 mighty Being from whom so many wonders emanate," it would be no 

 small attraction to our solitary sea-side walks, in search of Algw and Coral- 

 lines, to meet a fair countrywoman occasionally. 



Like Proserpina gathering flowers, 



Herself the fairest flower." 



Independently, however, of the interest attached to the Afgw as objects 

 of natural history — or as contributing to the income of coast proprietors in 

 the shape of kelp or manure — many species are used as food, either from 

 necessity or choice. " Porphyra laciniata and vulgaris is stewed, and 

 brought to our tables as a luxury, under the name of Laver ;" — and " on 

 the southern and western coasts of Ireland our own Chondrus crispiis is 

 converted into size for the use of house-painters, &c. ; and if I be not er- 

 roneously informed, is also considered as a culinary article, and enters into 



