SEAWEEDS 



There are also olive or brown seaweeds. Among 

 them are a number which have stem and leaf forms. 

 Many of them have spores from which new plants grow. 

 Some of these seaweeds are quite small; others grow 

 to be several hundred feet in length. 



Last and most beautiful are the red seaweeds, in 

 color from a dainty pink to a deep purple. They are 

 not so large nor so leaflike in appearance as the brown 

 ones. They grow in deeper water, but are often 

 washed ashore. Many of them are beautiful feather- 

 like plants. Some, called corallines, are covered with 

 lime. 



Among seaweeds the plant is called a frond. A 

 disk or conelike expansion at the base of the frond 

 takes the place of the root found in flowering plants. 

 This is a holdfast by which the frond fastens itself to 

 any material under the water. Seaweeds that grow 

 on sandy shores or on corals have holdfasts that 

 branch like fibrous roots. Holdfasts do not take in 

 nourishment for the plant, as roots do. Seaweeds get 

 their nourishment from the water around them. 



Some sea plants live but a year; others have a 

 long life. Seaweeds vary much in different seasons. 

 If you live near the ocean, try to get some each sea- 

 son and notice the differences. Those which form 

 spores throw them off into the water. Here they 

 sink or are washed to some place where they soon 

 begin to grow. 



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