46 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
while on his late visit to the Cape of Good Hope, where the 
author's important official duties happily do not hinder him ` 
from studying the Botany of the vast regions of Southern : 
Africa. We shall quote his remarks on the subject of the 
locality and the structure of the Algæ. 
“The name of Alge is assigned by Botanists to a large group, ` 
or natural class, of those cryptogamic or flowerless plants, | 
which form the principal and characteristic vegetation of the ` 
waters. The sea, in no climate, from the poles* to the equator, 
is altogether free from them, though they abound on some / 
shores much more than others, a subject which will come - 
particularly under notice when we speak of the distribution of | 
their several tribes. Species abound likewise in fresh water, - 
whether running or stagnant, and in mineral springs. 'The : 
strongly impregnated sulphurous streams of Italy ; the eternal - 
snows of the Alps and arctic regions ; and the boiling springs - 
of Iceland, have each their peculiar species; and even 
chemical solutions, if long kept, produce Algæ. Very few, 
comparatively, inhabit stations which are not submerged or. 
exposed to the constant dripping of water ; and in all situa- - 
tions where they are found, great dampness, at least, is 
necessary to their production. Thus extensively scattered | 
through all climates, and existing under so many varieties of 
situation, the species are, as one would naturally suppose ` 
exceedingly numerous, and present a greater variety in form ` 
and size than is observable in any other tribe of plants whose ` 
structure is so similar. Some are so exceedingly minute as 
to be wholly invisible, except in masses, to the naked ey6 
and require the highest powers of our microscopes to ascer- 
tain their form or structure. Others, growing in the depths | 
of the Pacific Ocean, have stems which exceed in length; ; 
though not in diameter, the trunks of the tallest forest-trees; 
and others have leaves that rival, in expansion, those ofthe. 
Palm. Some are simple globules or spheres, consisting of 3 
* The Naturalists of the “ Erebus and Terror discovery ships," have as- . 
certained, that in the very high southern continents which they have $0. 
courageously explored, the shores are utterly destitute of dige; and it 15 
probably the same in the extreme north,—Ep, 
ds 
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i ERIS 
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