128 SEA-WEEDS. 



fringed with most delicate hairs. It has been 

 observed of this lovely plant, that while it is 

 growing it is not uncommon to see the rays of 

 light decomposed as by a prism by this mass of 

 minute filaments which fringe the margin. Dr. 

 Harvey remarks of this sea-weed, that it is found 

 pretty extensively in the seas of warm countries 

 in both hemispheres, perhaps reaching its highest 

 latitude on our shores. 



The red sea- weeds (Ehodosperms) are more com- 

 mon in the seas of the temperate zone than in the 

 colder regions or near the Equator, and among 

 them are the kinds sought with most eagerness by 

 the amateur collectors of sea- weeds on our coasts. 

 They exhibit marine vegetation in its loveliest 

 forms, and though not all strictly red, being often 

 of purplish or brownish hue, yet they have among 

 them the red colour in great beauty, sometimes in 

 its palest or brightest rose tint, and in other cases 

 of richest scarlet or crimson. Often they are like 

 delicate fragile leaves, rent even by the touch of 

 the finger, as we strive to unroll their plaits. 

 Sometimes they are like little trees, with slender 

 hair-like branches, all entangling each other as 

 they hang dripping from the waters, but exhibiting 

 the utmost regularity, and minute beauty of 

 structure, when we dispose them on paper. The 

 individual forms of several of our olive species, as 

 the Laminaria, and especially the Alaria, are 

 graceful and elegant; but when they prevail, as 

 some of the commoner kinds often do, at the half- 

 tide level, covering all the rocks and shores with 

 a dark vegetation, they have a melancholy influ- 

 ence on the scenery ; and when waves are rough, 

 and clouds are dark, present a dreary waste. This 



