70 SEA WEEDS. 
rest of that dreadful night passed in comparative 
comfort. At daybreak their perilous condition was 
discovered from the shore, and they were rescued 
“A little learning,” in this case, was certainly nc 
“dangerous thing.” 
The Sea Weeds, or marine “ Algae,” as they are 
termed, belong to the first great natural order 
of plants,—the Acrogenous; they are so called be- 
cause, with a few exceptions, they are devoid of 
the usual appendages of plants — stems, leaves, 
and flowers. Some of the simplest forms belong- 
ing to this order consist merely of a mass of cellu- 
lar tissue. The mould which collects in damp 
places, and sometimes upon the top 
of articles of food that have been 
kept in damp closets, is a little plant 
of this order. The green tinge as- 
sumed by stagnant water, is owing 
to the presence of a species of fresh 
water “ Algae,” which grows spon- 
taneously in such places. The beau- 
tiful lichens that cover the bark of 
Mould, magnified. Some trees, and the rails and boards 
of old fences, the many kinds of 
moss with which our woods abound, and the un- 
sightly mushroom and toadstool, all belong to this 
order of plants. In all these there exists nothing 
which can be strictly defined as either stem, leaf, 
or flower; but in the “Ferns,” which also belong to 
the same order, we see the connecting link between 
the higher and the lower forms of vegetable life. The 
