XLbc pdflrims of tbe HJeac 165 



Many sea-weeds are very finely divided, graceful 

 and exquisitely formed, beyond all other j^lants, and 

 these lace-like fronds, beside which maiden-hair 

 fern and the fringe-tree look coarse, are tinted in 

 brown, red, pink, crimson, green, and minglings of 

 these colors. Blue, purple, and pure yellow are 

 shades unknown to sea-weeds. The nearest ap- 

 proach to yellow is the bronze of the tiny ball- 

 bladders of the gulf- weed. 



Algae are made of cells held together by a kind of 

 gelatin. Sometimes the cells elongate so as to be 

 tube-like. In some cases the cell-walls are so clearly 

 marked that they look like strings of beads. Like 

 other flowerless plants, sea-weeds grow not from 

 seeds, but from spores. 



Corallines are stiff sea-weeds, coated thickly with 

 lime gathered from the water. Some sea-weeds, 

 as dulse and Irish-moss, are eatable. The largest 

 plant in the Avorld is a great sea-weed which grows 

 to be from three hundred to seven hundred yards 

 long. Gulf-weed, or sargassum, has never been 

 found fastened, but floats in masses, often of several 

 acres extent. The Sargassum Sea is a mass of this 

 weed many miles broad spread out upon the water. 

 The stalks of some of these great weeds are larger 

 than a man's body. 



Many fislies and other sea animals feed upon sea- 



