CHAPTER XI 

 SEA-WEEDS 



PLATE XLV 



THE BLADDER-WRACK (i) 



T DARE say that you would like to know some- 

 thing about the sea-weeds which you may find 

 on the shore; so I am now going to describe 

 some of those which you are almost certain to 

 meet with. 



First of all, then, and commonest of all, there 

 is the bladder-wrack. Wherever there are rocks 

 on which it can grow you will always see it in 

 great masses. And after every storm enormous 

 quantities of it are torn off and flung upon the 

 beach. Then the farmers send down their carts 

 to carry it away. For after it has been piled up 

 in heaps for some time, so as to allow it partly 

 to decay, it makes a most useful manure; and 

 the farmers are only too glad to be able to spread 

 it over their fields. 



This plant is called the " bladder-wrack " be- 

 cause of the odd little oval bladders filled with 

 air which are found in the leaves, and which 

 explode with a slight report if you tread upon 



them or squeeze them. 



136 



