140 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



sea-weeds extremely worthy of notice, as distin- 

 guishing them in a remarkable manner from ter- 

 restrial plants, and, at the same time, exhibiting a 

 striking instance of an obviously designed relation 

 of their physiological character to the element in 

 which they exist. To perceive this peculiarity it 

 is requisite to refer to the structure of the higher 

 orders of terrestrial plants. In these the root is 

 not only that which serves to fix them in the soil, 

 but it is the part of the plant which absorbs the 

 moisture requisite to their growth. .The power 

 of absorption which the root exercises is very great, 

 some plants being capable of thus taking up in a 

 very short period many times their own weight of 

 water. Thus, for example, in an experiment made 

 with four plants of spearmint grown for fifty-six 

 days in water, it was found that, although they 

 themselves weighed only 403 grains, they absorbed 

 by their roots 54,000 grains of water, a quantity 

 equal to about seven pints. The liquid thus ab- 

 sorbed is transmitted from the root, along with any 

 chemical ingredients it contains, to every part of 

 the plant for the nourishment and growth of its 

 several parts. 



Now in the sea-weeds the only function which 

 the roots perform similar to those of land vege- 

 tables, is that of fixing the plant to its place. It 

 has no power whatever of transmitting moisture 

 to other parts of the plant, there being no system 

 of vessels for such a purpose, and the cells forming 

 the plant being entirely insulated from each other. 

 Accordingly, while in the majority of terrestrial 



