16 BUR.)fA, ITS PEOPLE AXD PRODUCTIOXS. 



ALG.E, OR THE ALGAL ALLIANCE. 

 The term Alfja is one of very wide signification, including not only those plants 



commonly known as seaweeds, but also a large number of aquatic cryptogams, among 



"wbieh are to be found the lowest and most minute forms of vegetable life. 

 The following remarks are from Mr. Berkeley, in Treasury of Botany : — 

 "There is no English word which will comprise the whole. Alga; are di^-ided 



into three great classes, each of which contains a number of very distinct groups. 



These three classes are characterized by the colour of their seeds, which correspond 



for the greater part with the general tint of the plants. 



" I. ]\Ielanospermea?, or Olive-spored. 

 " II. Rhodospermea;, or Rose-spored. 

 "III. Chlorospermefe, or Green-spored. 



"The first of these comprises the olive-coloured species, which, from their size 

 and abundance, are so conspicuous on the sea-shore, or which fioat in dense masses, 

 sometimes many leagues in extent, on the surface of the ocean. On the coasts of 

 Great Britain they attain the length of twenty feet or more, and in the genus 

 Laminaria individuals are sometimes large enough to be a load for a man. But 

 this is nothing to the size they attain in the Southern Seas, or even in some parts 

 of the Northern hemisphere. Individuals of the genus Maerocystis attain a length 

 of a hundred feet or more ; and Lessonia forms submarine forests, the stems re- 

 sembling trunks of trees. Some of the lower species have nothing Kke leaves, and 

 are reduced to mere inarticulated threads, or a shapeless mass. 



"The second class comprises those charming seaweeds, remarkable for their 

 elegance of form, delicacy of texture, and brilliancy of colour, which attract the 

 attention of all wanderers along the coast. These are often very abundant, but tliey 

 seldom attain any considerable size, and some of them are as delicate as moulds. 



"The third class contains most of the smaller species, in which the frond 

 seldom assumes the form of a membrane, but is more fi-equently reduced to a mere 

 thread, or even to single articulations." 



There is a great dearth of " Seaweed" on the Burmese coasts, that is to say, 

 of those large leathery olive-coloured kinds with which our British shores are strewn. 

 One may walk for miles along the sandy shores of Tenasserim and not find one. Nor 

 are the rocks, which the receding tide leaves exposed, clothed with the smaller 

 and more beautiful kinds — rose or green-coloured — to the extent they are at home. 



In the place of seaweed, the rocks are covered with corals, sponges, sea-anemones 

 and shells, the marvellous variety and beauty of which (especially in the Andaman 

 Islands) enchant the lover of nature, as he wades among the rocks at low water, 

 or looks down from his boat into the clear depths beneath him. Seaweeds, certainly, 

 do not form a conspicuous feature in the Botany of Burma. 



But although " Seaweeds" as the word is commonly understood, are very scarce, 

 " Alger" in the wider sense which science gives to this term, as inchuling both sea 

 and fresh-water weeds, are sufficiently numerous. 



The following catalogue of species (mostly fresh-water weeds and some of them 

 extremely minute objects) goes to confirm this statement. The species here named 

 were all collected by the late 3Ir. Sulpiz Kurz, and were determined for him by 

 Professors Martens and Zeller. 



Among the lower Algte are found the smallest forms, and what indeed appear 

 to he, the first germs of vegetable life. It is here that the limits of the animal and 

 yegetable kingdom are by some thought to be confounded. 



Coiiferracece are, to the naked eye, merely green slimes ; but, under the microscope, 

 they are seen to consist of threads of extreme tenuity iilled with green granular 

 matter, which is sometimes arranged in definite patterns. 



Desmidtaceee are microscopic plants, also of a green colour, with a gelatinous 

 exterior and of very variable form. They are reproduced by division after conjugation. 



Diatomacem arc minute organisms consisting of joints or frustules of a siliceous 

 texture, variously combined in a gelatinous medium, and generally brown in colour. 

 These siliceous frustules arc among the most beautiful of microscopic objects. But, 



