66 EVENINGS AT THE MICROSCOPE. 



CHAPTER lY. 



SEA-MATS AND SHELLY COEALLINES. 



"When we were at the sea-side last summer we bought, 

 you may remember, of a poor widow whom we met on 

 the beach, a little basket of dried sea-weeds. Fetch it : 

 it is on the chimney-piece upstairs. 



Now all of these objects are not sea-weeds. I mean 

 thej' are not all plants ; some of them are animals, and 

 these I want to bring under your notice this evening for 

 our microscopical entertainment. Plere are exquisite- 

 ly delicate crimson leaves, as thin or thinner than the 

 thinnest tissue-paper, with solid ribs and sinuous edges. 

 Here is a tall and elegant dark red feather, quite regu- 

 larly pinnated. Here is a tuft of purple filaments as 

 " fine as silkworm's thread." And here is a broad ir- 

 regular expanse of the richest emerald-green, crumpled 

 and folded, yet as glossy as if varnished. 



Well, all of these are plants, certainly : they are 

 veritable Algce, or sea-weeds. But here are other plant- 

 like objects of a pale brown, drab, or snowy-white hue. 

 Let us take this flattened brown leaf, divided into irreg- 

 ular broad lobes ; it looks almost like a thickish paper, 

 and is about as flexible. But pass your finger over it, 

 and you feel that its surface is evenly roughened ; and 

 on close and careful scrutiny you discern, even by the 

 naked eye, that its surface is covered with a delicate 

 network of minute shallow cells. 



