122 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 



finding sufficient nourishment in the circumambient 

 waters, have no occasion to detach a party of roots 

 into the ground, and forage the earth for sustenance. 

 Instead, therefore, of penetrating, they are but just 

 tacked to the bottom, and adhere to some solid sub- 

 stance, only with such a degree of tenacity as may 

 secure them from being tossed to and fro by the 

 random agitation of the waves." 



There are two striking peculiarities in sub-marine 

 vegetables, which deserve our notice. Several of 

 them are furnished with a number of appendages in 

 the form of globes or bladders; and, instead of an 

 uniformity of colour, these are found to be diversi- 

 fied with a dissimilarity of tints The former, how- 

 ever, from emitting a loud noise when broken, we 

 have reason to conclude may possibly serve the pur- 

 pose of air-vessels to the plants, and we need not go 

 far to have the mystery solved, why they are made 

 to differ so much in colour trom each other. 



Let us attend to the operations of yonder angler, 

 and behold with what eagerness the unsuspecting 

 fish, guided by the eye, rushes on the deceitiul bait ; 

 if we can, therefore, for a moment harbour the sup- 

 position that it is by the eye the finny tribes are, in 

 a great degree, directed in their movements, and 

 knowing, as we do, that some of them delight in ve- 

 getable food, we must see at once the propriety of 

 such a variety in the colour of the carpet that covers 

 the bed of the, ocean, and the wisdom in the contri- 

 vance of its different hues. Without dwelling on the 

 several uses of the vegetable productions of the great 



