Seaweeds and Leaf-green 



The algae stand on the lowest level of plant life, whilst 

 our flowering plants and ferns are the highest and best 

 developed of all. 



And yet although their anatomy is quite different, 

 there are very curious parallels between this water vege- 

 tation and that of the land. 



The Fucus' have root-like grasping fingers which take 

 firm hold of the rock, and which seem to be distinctly 

 sensitive to the touch of the stones. They have flexible 

 tough stems and flattened leaf-like fronds. 



Yet neither root, stem, nor leaf correspond in any 

 way to those of the higher plants. Some of the elegant 

 little red seaweeds have a pretty arrangement which 

 looks like the bark of a land plant, but in these the 

 "bark" is a series of flattened rosette-like branches 

 closely covering the central thread of cells. 



Moreover, these submarine plants have their parasites, 

 and many small algae seem to be seldom found except 

 upon some of the larger kinds. 



One of these is specially interesting, for it belongs to 

 the algae, and yet it has lost every particle of chlorophyll, 

 and grows as a pure parasite on a common red alga 

 (Rhodomela subfusca).^^ 



So it corresponds exactly with the sickly yellow or 

 white dodders and toothworts, which are flowering plants 

 without chlorophyll and parasites upon other flowering 

 plants. 



1 Timiriaseff. ^ Usher and Priestley. ' Ewart. 



* Jonnson. ^ Blackman. ^ Gaidukov. 



' Murray. ^ Warming. ' Lowenstein. 



1° Ewart. ^^ Catterina. ^^ Macfadyen and Rowland. 



1' Grafe. ^* Friedenfeldt. ^^ Macfadyen. 



1* Kuster. ^' Schimper. ^^ Borgesen. 



19 Chun, Karsten. ^o Rginsch. " Lohmann. 



22 Zacharias, Koford, Willkomm. ^s Moebius. 



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