146 SEA-WEEDS. 



the house-painter, and Dawson Turner availed 

 himself of its glutinous nature to form a glue by 

 which he pasted on paper such sea-weeds as would 

 not adhere to the papers on which he arranged 

 them. 



Dr. Greville calls this plant the Proteus of the 

 marine algse, for it varies so much according to 

 its situation and the measure of light which reaches 

 it, that the young botanist finds it almost im- 

 possible to determine to which of the described 

 varieties an individual plant belongs. The width 

 of the frond is so different ; sometimes it is an inch 

 across its widest part, sometimes not a twelfth 

 part of that width. Then it divides itself into such 

 various shapes ; sometimes the segments at the edges 

 being round, in others acute or jagged ; or forming 

 long slender points ; and if this sea- weed grows in 

 a spot where it is exposed to the influence of fresh 

 water, it alters so much, that an ordinary observer 

 of marine plants would think it belonged to a 

 different genus. Then its colour is variable. When 

 growing in a shady pool it is iridescent ; when it 

 has been lying in the sun it is bleached perfectly 

 white, while it may be seen in all the intermediate 

 tints between white and dark purple, often tinged, 

 too, with green. Nor is it even constant in its 

 place of growth ; for on the very shore where in 

 one spring it lies in great profusion, it is not 

 unlikely that in the following year a few speci- 

 mens only will be found. 



Another common species, which is, equally with 

 this, termed Carrageen Moss, and which exactly 

 resembles it in its nature and properties, is the 

 Chondrus mamillosus. This grows on rocks and 



