BY THE SEASIDE— PLANT LIFE 



currents. Safely hidden in this marine forest lurk 

 queer fishes and crabs and shell fish. About the 

 broad fronds of the *' Devil's Apron " sea mice and 

 sea cucumbers disport themselves ; the Tangle home 

 is a paradise for marine life. Yet with all their 

 vigrous growth they increase simply by liberating 

 spores which give rise to new plants. 



In our chapter on Plant Life we described spores 

 very briefly; we said that from a strictly scientific 

 point of view they were not comparable to seeds 

 but that for our purpose they might be looked upon 

 as seeds for the reason that, by their germination, 

 new plants were formed. All the spores of land 

 plants are minute, they are carried from the mother 

 plant to suitable spots for germination by wind. 

 The spores of seaweeds also are small, but they are 

 very different to the little wind-blown, land-dwell- 

 ing spores. They possess a pair of the curious little 

 whip-like structures we have observed in so many 

 water plants and animals. By the lashing of these 

 little whips they are able to swim about in the 

 water till they find a suitable spot to settle down 

 and grow into plants similar to those whence they 

 came. On account of their animal-like movements 

 they are called zoospores. 



The formation of zoospores may be easily observed 

 in the brown sea weed Ectocarpus Siliculosus we 

 have already mentioned. This plant, as we have 

 already remarked, consists of thin, thread-like rows 

 of single cells and from time to time it is branched. 

 At certain periods of the year, moderately large, 



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