124 FOOTNOTES FROM 



which would otherwise either remain in obscurity, or be 

 revealed only by the " chance fortune of the hour." It 

 would be interesting to state some of the novel facts 

 thus elicited ; but I must forbear, as our attention in 

 this chapter, is to be occupied with the history of an 

 important and remarkable division of the algae called 

 hydrophites, or fresh-water algse, whose economy is 

 altogether peculiar, and whose forms are widely different 

 from the lovely Plocamiums and Delesserias, which we 

 frequently observe with admiration in our wanderings 

 along the sea-shore. 



There is a peculiar charm about the fresh -water algse, 

 derived from the nature of the element in which they live. 

 Aquatic plants of all kinds are more interesting than land 

 plants. Water is so bright, so pure, so transparent, so fit 

 an emblem of that spiritual element in which our souls 

 should bathe and be strengthened, from which they should 

 drink and be satisfied. It is a perpetual baptism of 

 refreshment to the mind and senses. It idealizes every 

 object in it and around it ; the commonest and most 

 vulgar scenes, reflected in its clear mirror, are pictorial 

 and romantic. It is ever varying in its unity, so that 

 the eye never wearies in gazing upon it. All these asso- 

 ciations invest the confervse which flourish in it with 

 a peculiar nameless interest, independent of their own 

 mysteries of structure and function. They mingle, like 

 vegetable lotos-eaters, with the snow-white chalices and 

 broad velvet leaves of the lilies, in the tranquil shallows 

 of the moorland lake ; and, with the golden hues of the 

 sunset, and the rosy blush of the heather-hills around, 

 create a scene of enchantment in the clear pellucid depths. 



