CHAPTER Qe 
SEAWEEDS AND PONDWEEDS (ALGA®) 
First of all, I have to explain that the title of this 
chapter is rather misleading, for, in the first place, 
the great alge class includes certain plants that live 
neither in seas nor ponds, but on snow; and in the 
second, there are a great many plants in the ponds which 
are not alge at all, but most respectable and high-class 
flowering plants, such as the Water-lilies. At the same 
time, the seaweeds are the typical group in the class, 
and the green microscopic scum which you may often see 
on a pond is almost entirely composed of members of 
our present class. You will remember from Chapter L. 
that the alge include all the plants which can boast of 
the green chlorophyll corpuscles, but are built up of 
nothing but cells, very often of only one cell. They 
possess neither true roots nor true leaves, but in some 
of the highest examples we get very near to leaves, and 
some of the large seaweeds cast up on the shore seem to 
have roots. These, however, are really nothing but 
anchors to attach the plant to rock or ship’s keel, and 
have no share in the true function of a root, to suck 
up nourishment. 
Everywhere in the world one may find representatives 
of the alge—on the Arctic snow, in hot springs whose 
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