ALG.E, 



Ord. VI. ALGiE. Juss. (Linn., part of J. 



Aquatic Plants, with very few exceptions; of very varied form 

 and texture : a single globule or a series of globules or joints 

 placed one at the extremity of the other, so as to form a simple 

 or branched filament (in some genera enveloped in gelatine) or 

 united and extended in various directions and thus constituting 

 a membranous or coriaceous almost horny more or less dis- 

 tinctly cellular frond, rounded, compressed or flat, simple or 

 branched, the branches often foliaceous, nerveless, or costate 

 and nerved, entire or serrated ; the main stems in the coarser 

 species almost woody and very fibrous; floating in the water 

 or attached by a fibrous or scutate base to substances from 

 which they appear to receive no nutriment, that being de- 

 rived from the element by which they are surrounded. Their 

 colour is various, different shades of green, brown, red, &c. 

 After having been kept dry for a great length of time, they will 

 revive by immersion in water ; but only that portion of the plant 

 which is immersed imbibes the fluid. The Seeds or Sporules 

 consist of minute granules, internal, clustered or scattered, or 

 imbedded in tubercles or peculiar processes arising from the 

 frond. Often two or three different kinds or rather forms of 

 fructification exist in the same species, but each apparently in 

 itself is capable of becoming a new plant. There is nothing 

 that can be compared to the stamens in phsenogamous plants. 



As we recede from the more perfectly formed (as they are 

 termed) or more highly organized Cryptogamous plants which 

 stand at the head of this arrangement, we find it more and more 

 difficult to characterize in a few words the respective Orders or 

 groupes, and to distinguish them from the neighbouring ones. 

 But the eye, when a little practised, will soon enable the student 

 to recognise them ; and though the present extensive Natural 

 Order is reckoned among the lowest of the vegetable creation, 

 we shall find that it is scarcely exceeded by any in the form 

 and colour and texture of its species ; so that no cryptogamic 

 plants have been more general objects of admiration and re- 

 search ; and, if their value is to be estimated by the service that 

 mankind derives from them, they will hold a high rank in the 

 scale. Many kinds are eaten in different parts of the world, 



