TUK SHOKES (»P BIIITAIN. IP 



" Vi(3wing these tribes," observes Dr. Greville, '• iu iiie 

 most careless way, as a system of subaqueous vegeta- 

 tion, or even in a merely picturesque light, we see the 

 depths of ocean shadowed with submarine groves, 

 often of vast extent, intermixed with meadows, as it 

 were, of the most lovely hues : while the trunks of 

 the larger species, like the great trees of the tropics, 

 are loaded with innumerable minute kinds, as fine as 

 silk, or transparent as a membrane."* In stating 

 some particulars of the history of but a few of the 

 species found on our own shores, I hope to show tliat 

 the contempt which lias been, even to a proverb, cast 

 upon the "vile sea-weed," is very much misplaced. It 

 is only a contracted mind, governed by debasing 

 selfishness, which measures the esteem in which it 

 holds any object by the degree to which it ministers 

 to the comfort or profit of man : the instructed Chris- 

 tian will feel a higher gratification in the thought that 

 the perfections of God t-hine forth more luminously 

 the more His handiwork is examined. It was no 

 selfishness that prompted the Sons of God, when they 

 saw this beautiful and glorious world, fresh in its 

 unsullied prime, come from the hands of its Maker, — 

 to sing together, and all the Morning Stars to shout 

 for joy. Yet we may, with adoring gratitude, recog- 

 nise the love which remembers man, and provides 

 many natural objects for his appropriation ; endowing 

 them with qualities which his intelligence discovers 

 to be useful, and which alleviate the privation and 

 toil of his fallen condition. 



A substance called kelp, an impure carbonate of 



* iMgoc Brit-oimicae. Introd. 



