CHAPTER I. 



HISTORY OF ALGiE. 



" Non ego te meis 

 Chartis inormitum silebo, 

 Totve tuos patiar labores 



Impuue carpere lividas 



Oblivioues." — Horace. 



AYe shall mention very briefly some of those authors whose 

 works have greatly helped to promote this department of 

 botanical science, and with one exception we shall confine 

 ourselves to writers of our own country. The justly-cele- 

 brated Linna3us is the exception. His attention was chiefly 

 directed to pli?enogamous or flowering plaiits. His situa- 

 tion, at a distance from the sea, was not favourable for the 

 investigation of Marine Algae ; his herbarium contained com- 

 paratively few species. His division of this order of plants 

 was a simple one, for he ranked all aquatic Alga3, whether 

 from the sea or from fresh water, under four great genera, 

 Tremella, Fncus, Ulva, and Conferva. In our own country 

 we can boast of Eay, that great and gl)od man, whose 

 works were of so much service in almost every branch of 



