THE WONDERS OF VEGETATION. 273 



leaves ; tlieir brilliant colors, green, olive, yellow^ 

 rose and purple, and sometimes combined in the most 

 extraordinary way in the same plant, give to these 

 vegetables a strange and fairy-like character." 



" The plants of the ocean," says a French writer, 

 " do not much resemble those which adorn our woods 

 and valleys. In the first place, they have no roots. 

 Those that float are globular or egg-shaped, tubular 

 or membraneous, but show no signs of root ; those 

 that are stationary are fixed by a sort of gummy, super- 

 ficial matter, more or less lobed and divided. The 

 *arth counts for nothing in their development, for 

 their origin is always independent of it. Every thing 

 takes place in the water from it comes every thing 

 to it every thing returns." (Quatrefages.) 



Terrestrial plants choose particular localities and 

 flourish only in certain soils. Marine plants are in- 

 different as to what rock they attach themselves, 

 whether it be calcareous or granite, to them it is all 

 the same. They grow indiscriminately anywhere 

 even on corals or shells. They have neither real 

 stems nor real leaves ; they spread out in wide or 

 narrow layers, in one or many pieces, which supply 

 the place of these organs. They sometimes resemble 

 waving ropes, and at other times crisp threads. Some 

 of them might be taken for little transparent balloons, 

 for cakes of trembling jelly, for tanned hides, or for 

 fans of green paper. Their surface is sometimes soft, 

 polished,luminous, at other times covered with papillge, 

 warts or real hairs. Their color is dark or olive, yel- 

 low dark brown, dark or bright green, pink, or more 

 18 



