SEA-WEEDS. Ill 



grown on shallows in that part of the sea where 

 they abound, and to have been rent from them by 

 fishes. But it seems now to be ascertained that 

 this weed has no other station than the sea itself, 

 since among the thousands of specimens fished up 

 and examined, no root has been discovered. It 

 grows, therefore, freely in the open sea. 



The Sea-grape is an olive-green weed, with long 

 slender leaves, and berries about as large as a pea, 

 from which it derived its name of Tropic Grape. 

 Our sailors call this sea- weed Midshipman's pickle, 

 because it is pickled in vinegar and eaten on board 

 of our ships. It is also made into salads, in some 

 countries of the East. Myriads of fishes and sea 

 animals live on these masses of weeds these ocean 

 meadows ; and though they are not firm enough to 

 bear the foot of man, yet the birds which 



" Make voyages amidst the pathless heaveii " 



find a temporary resting-place and a pleasant food 

 on these floating islands, and sing their thankful 

 songs amid the waste of waters, heard only by the 

 ear of Him, who, when He called them into being, 



" Forgot not one of his large family, 

 But cared for each as for an only child." 



We have five British species of the olive-coloured 

 genus of sea-weeds called Bladder-chain, but they 

 are none of them very common, except on the 

 southern shores of England and Ireland. The 

 most frequent is the Granulated Bladder- chain 

 (Cystoseira granulata), which has a cylindrical 

 stem, about as thick as a goose-quill, from two to 

 eight inches high, with numerous branches, slender 

 as a packthread. The air-vessels form a kind of 



