CHAPTER XVI 



THE MICROSCOPE BY THE SEASIDE — PLANT LIFE 



THE plant life of the sea side may be divided 

 into two natural groups (i) of plants living 

 on the shore near the sea and (ii) of plants 

 living in the sea, for part of each day at least. The 

 former group contains many plants of exactly the 

 same kind as occur far inland, together with a few 

 typically sea-side plants such as Thrift or Sea Pink. 

 They are, however, one and all land plants. In this 

 chapter we shall confine ourselves to the real sea 

 plants, the seaweeds. 



Before we study any of these interesting plants 

 under the microscope, it will be useful to learn a 

 little about seaweeds in general, because they are 

 so totally unlike land plants in every respect. They 

 belong to the great plant division known as the 

 Algse, to which also belong the Diatoms, Desmids, 

 Volvooo, Spirogyra and many of the other plants we 

 mentioned in our chapter on Pond Life. So we see 

 that, although all seaweeds are Algae, not all Algae 

 are seaweeds. They are higher in the scale of de- 



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