CHAPTER XIX. 

 SEAWEEDS. 



IT is to the rocky shore we must first turn our steps, if we 

 desire to obtain a wide acquaintance with the British Sea- 

 weeds : that is the grand hunting-ground for the Phycologist. 

 In the rock-pools he will find very many of the smaller 

 species, and thickly coating the fringing rocks are the larger, 

 tough and leathery species of Fucus and Laminaria, forming 

 at once a breakwater that largely destroys the force of heavy 

 seas, and a splendid cover for the soft-bodied creatures that 

 swarm on the rock-surface, and feed on the plants that pro- 

 tect them from the fury of the waves. The ancients called 

 them inutiles alg<z, but in the ocean's ceaseless warfare with 

 the land, the greatest obstacle the former has to encounter 

 is the network shield of seaweed, that breaks the force of its 

 heaviest blows. This is an utilitarian characteristic of the 

 seaweeds, for which Britons, at least, should be thankful, quite 

 apart from their minor importance as sources of food, physic, 

 fodder, and manure, and their aesthetic qualities. 



The whole class of Seaweeds, with the solitary exception of 

 the Grass-wrack (Zostera maritima) belong to the flowerless 

 division of plant-life, and to that section called Algae. They 

 are plants of simple organization, being innocent of wood or 

 other complicated tissue ; the whole plant being made up of 

 cells, though in the higher families there is an approach to 

 the formation of vessels and tissues. They are absolutely 

 without roots, though the larger species are attached to rocks 

 or other algae, by what appears to be a root. This organ, 

 however, does not penetrate into the substance to which it is 



