THE USES OF SEA- WEEDS. 49 



take at random ten thousand persons from either town or 

 country, and march them along a bank carpeted with 

 myriads of this beautiful fork- moss, when every frond is 

 surmounted by its lovely fructification, not ten out of the 

 ten thousand would take notice or say, " Is not that charm- 

 ing ?^^ The majority would also see it, and not see it; 

 yet if their attention were specially directed to it, they 

 would almost all wonder that they had not before greatly 

 admired it."^ We deprive ourselves of much innocent 

 pleasure if we are not observant of the wonderful works of 

 God. And how much may the mind be enlarged by the 

 devout and intelligent contemplation of what He has so 

 wonderfullv made ! " The more w^e extend our researches," 

 says Dr. Greville, ^' into the vegetable kingdom, the more 

 will every susceptible mind be excited to proceed. We 

 shall find the most delicate and elaborate processes in 

 ceaseless progression on the mountains and in the valleys, 

 the meadows and the recesses of our woods, on the rocks 

 of our friths and seas — all subj^t to immutable law-s. We 

 shall find colours unrivalled, odours inimitable, and forms 



* I may mention to my young friends that what is called fructification in 

 mosses and sea-weeds and other cryptogamic plants, answers the sanac pur- 

 pose as flowers in phsenogamous plants. 



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