MARINE BOTANY. 27 



out all seas, or growing on the shores of different countries, 

 some species even serve as food, and are eagerly collected 

 by the bordering inhabitants. In Asia, different kinds of 

 Laminaria render palatable the hot condiments of the East ; 

 and such as are common to Australia yield nutritious food, 

 and vessels for domestic purposes. Knife-handles are 

 made in Scotland from the stems of the finger-like Lami- 

 naria (Laminaria digitate) ; and when tipped with metal, 

 they can hardly be distinguished from those of horn. In 

 medicine, the most important benefits result from iodine, 

 which is extracted from the Laminaria buccinalis. The 

 Gigantina tinens forms, in China, an important article of 

 commerce, and at least twenty-seven thousand pounds 

 weight are annually imported into Canton from two pro- 

 vinces. A tenacious glue is extracted by long boiling, which 

 the ingenious Chinese use in manufacturing their lanterns, 

 and with the same they also render them transparent. Tra- 

 vellers conjecture that it forms a principal ingredient in the 

 gummy substance with which the lozenge-shaped interstices 

 of their windows, simply formed of bamboo strips crossed 

 diagonally, are wholly filled up. 



MELANOSPEEMEiE. 

 Name derived from two Greek words, signifying black and seed. 



Marine plants of an olive-brown colour, changing to 

 black in the air, of a leathery or woody substance, and 

 fibrous texture. 



Root, in some species accompanied with creeping fibres. 

 Froud flat, -compressed, or filiform, in many producing dis- 

 tinct leaves, and in most, furnished with air-vessels. Fruc- 

 tification, spherical clusters of opaque seeds, embedded in 

 distinct gelatinous receptacles, and finally escaping through 

 external pores. 



Sea- weeds belonging to this series are most frequent about 

 half- tide level, and are generally of a large size; when 



