INTRODUCTION. 



The time is not very far gone past,, when a book on the 

 study of Sea-weeds would have been the very reverse of 

 popular in any case. About fifty years ago, in some aca- 

 demic chairs, they were treated with disdain. We have 

 heard of a student about that period who, having collected 

 some beautiful Algse on the shore, showed the contents of 

 his vasculum to the Professor of Botany whose lectures 

 he attended, expressing a wish to get some information re- 

 specting them. The Professor looked at them, and putting 

 on his spectacles, again looked at them, when, pushing 

 them from him, he exclaimed : " Pooh ! a parcel of Sea- 

 weeds, Sir ; a parcel of Sea-weeds ! '' The Newhaven 

 fishermen seem to have caught the spirit of this learned 

 Professor, for to this day do they denominate all the finer 

 Sea-weeds, — chaff. They are iveeds : and what are weeds ? 

 Dr. Johnson, the famous lexicographer, tells us that they 



B 



