128 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



range, extending from the south of England to 

 the north of Ireland and south-west of Scotland, 

 and others even to Orkney and Shetland along the 

 western shores of both islands. As regards depth 

 our marine plants are likewise variously dis- 

 tributed. Some sea-weeds extend to the line of 

 ebb at spring-tides, some belong to an inner line 

 within which they become partially uncovered 

 every ordinary tide ; others, again, flourish within 

 the line of the neap-tides, and become entirely 

 uncovered at each recess of the water, and others 

 occupy stations so shallow and near the shore 

 that they are frequently, and for a considerable 

 period at one time, left almost quite dry. It 

 thus appears that there are certain boundaries 

 or limits within which certain kinds of algae are 

 found to flourish ; but, so far as can be ascertained 

 at the depth of fifty fathoms in the British seas, 

 the vegetation is scanty. 



The various species of sea-plants on our shores 

 amount to about three hundred and seventy. 

 Some of these are large, some so minute that their 

 structure can be examined only with a microscope. 

 They all exhibit great variety of form. Some 

 are composed of broad, ribbon-like leaves or 

 fronds ; some are like long strings of brown cord ; 

 others have leaves very similar to those of terres- 

 trial plants; others, again, are like strings of 

 beads, tufts of silk or velvet, network, bunches of 

 slender hairs, tubes of glass filled with colouring 

 matter, or minute trees with spreading branches 

 and numerous slender twigs; in a word, the 



