PREFACE. 



The study of Sea-weeds, — Phycology, as it is technically 

 termed, — was formerly a comparatively neglected science, 

 and in consequence there was scope for more rapid pro- 

 gress in it than in the better known branches of botany. 

 Accordingly, in the interval that has elapsed since the 

 publication of Dr. Harvey's admirable ' Phycologia 

 Britannica/ many very important changes have been 

 made in the classification and nomenclature of Sea- 

 weeds, particularly of those of the Red series. These 

 changes are recorded, chiefly, in expensive works, such 

 as Harvey's ' Nereis Boreali- Americana 3 and ' Phycolo- 

 gia Australica/ etc., in scientific periodicals, or in the 

 foreign publications of Agardh, Kiitzing, and others ; 

 and have not, that I am aware, been introduced into any 

 easily accessible English work, with the exception of Dr. 

 Gray's ( Handbook of Water-weeds/ In the following 

 pages I have endeavoured to supply the want that ap- 

 peared to me to exist, — to offer to the more or less ad- 

 vanced student a manual of British Sea-weeds, based on 

 the most recent scientific research ; and to the beginner 



