List of the St. Lawrence AIg(B. 31. 



An idea is we fear somewliat prevalent that the collection and 

 classification of sea-weeds is an employment only for children and 

 idle people — that to give anything like earnest attention to this 

 beautiful but comparatively useless class of plants, is to mis-spend 

 one's valuable time. Now, we do not deny that this class of plantsj 

 from their rare beauty of form and colour and from the facility 

 with which they may be prepared as articles of ornament, has 

 become of late years a favourite source of amusement to young 

 persons, and especially to young ladies. It is, however, certain 

 that while they find amusement in collecting and preparing speci- 

 mens, they also bring their minds into contact, in a most instruc- 

 tive way, with some of the most interesting and beautiful forms 

 of Creative Wisdom. They, for example, become familiar with 

 colours of gem-like lustre and with varieties of form and structure, 

 which, for delicacy and beauty, far surpass the conceptions of 

 human imagination or the skill of human hands. Especially this 

 is the case if collectors examine and classify their specimens by 

 the aid of a microscope, with powers ranging from 100 to 400 diame- 

 ters. This will open up to them a world of wonders, and impart a 

 deep and delicious pleasure to all their researches. Now that good 

 microscopes are so cheap and so easily attainable, every collector 

 of plants should have one, and should make it his constant com- 

 panion. There is a large number of the Algae, and these too the 

 most beautiful and interesting, which can only be determined by 

 a, microscopic examination of their tissues and their modes of 

 reproduction. 



Let not any one imagine that these plants are of no use. They 

 may, it is true, be of little use to us ; but it is taking a low view 

 of the utility of things to judge of it simply by our personal 

 advantage. It is admitted that we can get very little to eat or to 

 sell from the Algae. We would not advise any one to attempt 

 to make a living by collecting and preparing specimens. They 

 are, nevertheless, not without their use. We get iodine, one of 

 the most valuable of medicines, from the Fucaceae ; and the vast 

 quantities of sea-weeds which are cast upon our shores are used 

 extensively as a most excellent manure for our fields. 



If we judge of the use of the Algae, not by the direct benefits 

 which we receive from them, but from the place which they occupy? 

 and the work wliich they perform in the grand system of the 

 organic kingdom, we shall see that these humble plants are entitled 

 to most honorable consideration. If antiquity is any honor in 



