ON SEA- WEEDS. 145 



CHAPTER X. 



ON SEA- WEEDS (Marine Algce). 



" The timid girls 



Dip the small foot iii the retarded brine, 



And search for crimson weeds, which spreading flow, 



Or lie like pictures on the sand below, 



With all those bright red pebbles that the sun, 



Through the small waves, so softly shines upon/' 



CRABBE. 



(( Call us not weeds, we are flowers of the sea. 

 For lively, and bright, and gay tinted are we, 

 And quite independent of culture or showers ; 

 Then call us not weeds, we are ocean's gay flowers. 



" Not nursed like the plants of the summer parterre, 

 Where gales are but sighs of the evening air, 

 Our exquisite, fragile, and delicate forms 

 Are nursed by the ocean, and rocked by the storms." 



ANON. 



IT is' not my intention in this chapter to attempt an 

 elaborate sketch of Marine Algae. My aim is merely 

 to endeavour to make the uninitiated reader acquainted 

 with the most remarkable varieties of Sea- weeds that 

 are to be met with among rocks and rock pools ; and 

 K 



