272 THE WONDERS OF VEGETATION. 



that which the dry land presents. There is a world 

 of its own, beneath the waves, and the classifications of 

 land plants does not apply to those of the watery 

 world. The sea-bottom is laid out in mountains and 

 valleys, covered with a magnificent vegetation, in the 

 midst of which a thousand animal forms are sport- 

 ing forests that shelter guests more numerous and 

 not less varied than those of our more familiar for- 

 ests on terra firma. 



It is our duty, however, to state that if there are 

 incomparably more animals in the water than on the 

 earth, vegetable life is not so extensively represented 

 in the former ; but there is this compensation, that 

 in the ocean there is still another class of creatures, 

 which are at once animals and vegetables. 



Yes, the sea is a new world, the rich and varied 

 productions of which will hereafter form a most mar- 

 vellous section of Natural History. The posthumous 

 work of Moquiii Tandon (The World of the Sea. 

 London : Cassel, Fetter & Galpin), has revealed the 

 importance of this hidden world, and contains, as in 

 one casket, all the pearls concealed beneath the waves. 

 Let us hear what the great German botanist, Schlei- 

 den, says about submarine plants : " The submarine 

 flora consists almost exclusively of algae or sea-wrack. 

 These plants present such a diversity of forms tLac 

 a promenade at the bottom of the sea would not be 

 less interesting or less varied than a journey in the 

 Tropics. Their peculiar structure, soft and gelatinous 

 in all its parts, a collection of organs round, elongated 

 or flat, which do not deserve the name of trunks and 



