THE EIBST-TIDE POOL. 21 



The most of us know how excellent for invalids is 

 jelly made from the carrageen or Irish moss ; and we 

 shall find that same moss presently in our tide-pools, 

 only with another name ; it abounds on all our coasts 

 as Chondrus Crispus — sold at one time as high as two 

 shillings and sixpence a pound, because a fashionable 

 dish for invalids. 



No seaweed, however, is more useful and interesting 

 than the very brown common seaweed, that is passed 

 by as useless for the album, and of no beauty what- 

 ever; and yet its fructification is of the highest 

 order, and its importance to the agriculturist so 

 great as to render it very precious in the Channel 

 Islands, Scotland, and Ireland. 



I must, however, before taking the seaweeds sepa- 

 rately, impress upon my readers the necessity of 

 observing the fruit. 



Their Fettctieicatiof. 



The basis of all our classification in Natural His- 

 tory is the fructification. 



The Creator Himself has so outlined Hi3 plan : 



"The herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its 

 kind, whose seed is in itself after its kind. 1 ' 



The trees of the forest, the flowers of the field, are 

 not more surely classed by their blossoms and their 

 fruit than are these pretty lowly seaweeds. It makes 

 all the difference too in a mounted specimen — Ploca- 

 rdum for instance — whether it be in fruit or not. 



