22 COMMON SEAWEEDS. 



Not only lias a seaweed fruit, but ou many species 

 there are two kinds of fructification, and on one at least, 

 the Fucus, are recognized the sexual organs, which were 

 once supposed only existing in flowers — the perfect 

 form of vegetable life. You will discover the ordinary 

 forms of fruit with a simple lens, but very little of 

 their great beauty and delicate texture without a mi- 

 croscope. It may be scarcely credible that a most 

 abundant dark, unlovely w^eed, called Folysiphonia, 

 is full of little berries, called ceramidia, urn-shaped, 

 transparent, as if fashioned of delicate net-work, con- 

 taining oblong brown or crimson seeds, whilst another 

 plant close by it bears long pods containing masses of 

 four seeds, or spores, called tetraspores. In my notice 

 of FolysiphoTvia I give a drawing of these, to assist 

 in the observation of other specimens. 



If you have a microscope and examine your seaweed 

 intelligently, always take a very small piece and place 

 it on a glass slide with a drop of water, and a thin bit 

 of glass over that again, else you will not be able to 

 see what I describe. Use a low power — a two-inch 

 object-glass is the best ; then if you possess higher 

 powers, use them one by one : the more you investi- 

 gate the more you will find to astonish and delight 

 you. Minute and unsuspected forms of Algce, or sea- 

 weed parasitic on the larger ones, and so wholly 

 microscopic as to be classed apart, and called Diato- 

 maces, have long been a source of wonder and deep in- 

 terest to scientific observers : the variety in form, the 

 beauty of their markings it is impossible to conceive 

 without having seen them. 



"We dabble in the cool, clear tide-pools, and scarcely 



