180 Objects for the Microscope. 



CHAPTER IX. 



SEA- WEEDS MARINE ALG^E. 



" The gentleness of Heaven is on the sea. 

 Listen ! the mighty Being is awake, 

 And doth with his eternal motion make 

 A sound like thunder everlastingly." 



Wordsworth. 

 " The water is calm and still below, 



For the winds and waves are absent there, 

 And the sands are bright as the stars that glow 



In the motionless fields of upper air j 

 There, with its waving blade of green, 



The Sea-weed streams through the silent water, 

 And the crimson leaf of the Dulse is seen 

 To blush like a banner bathed in slaughter." 



Percival. 



THESE slides of sea-weeds will surely be very popular 

 objects ; the student at the sea-side will refer to them again 

 and again for the verification of his own specimens, and for 

 instruction in the varied tissues and parts of fructification. 

 The student at home and far inland will bend over them in 

 delight until he hears the booming wave, and feels the spray 

 of an up-rushing tide until, on the wide, wild coast, after 

 a storm, he seems to see the tangled treasures of these 

 beautiful plants cast up to perish. Or, as slide after slide 

 is examined and learned, the strong yearning will come for 

 a wandering by the sea-side a rest beside a rock-pool. It 

 the sea-side has ever been a Home if our childhood's joy 

 has been to patter on the sands with naked feet, and chase 

 the scrambling crab into its cranny or, later, with eager 

 hand to gather Zoophyte and Weed, with an understanding 

 heart and loving eye for the great works of the Almighty, 

 then these beautiful specimens will come with the power 

 of association and memory, as well as with their scientific 

 value. 



A slide of that exquisite Ptilota plumosa sent my spirit 

 far away from the quiet country home. A sound of a 



