Zamifiariea.'] laminaria. 121 



should not be unwilling to use it; and we have seen it 

 tlius metamorphosed^ but on too small a scale to be useful. 

 This was among sandhills on the coast of Ayrshire, where 

 it had been drifted a considerable way inland by some unu- 

 sually high tide, and having been deeply covered with 

 driven sand, it had lain, it may be for ages, and had become 

 a layer of peat about two inches thick, in which the stout 

 tubular rind of the tangle-stem in a compressed state was 

 quite distinguishable. 



But far from unimportant are the purposes to which it 

 has been put in the formation of kelp, to which the stems, 

 and indeed the whole of this plant, greatly contribute. AYho 

 would have thought that burnt Sea-weed would ever have 

 been found useful in the manufacture of such a substance as 

 glass ? And yet till lately the materials out of which the 

 best window-glass was formed, were two parts of kelp, and 

 one of fine white sand. The kelp was substituted for the 

 " fossil alkali,^^ which, according to a probable account, was 

 accidentally found to contribute to the formation of glass. 

 Accordiug to Pliny, '^ a merchant-vessel loaded with nitre or 

 fossil alkali having been driven ashore on the coast of Pales- 

 tine, near the river Bolas, the crew went in search of pro- 

 visions, and accidentally supported the kettles on which they 



