THE MARINE BOTANIST. 33 



Laces." The ^^ Tangles " (Laminarias) are higlily 

 prized for manuring their potatoes with by the poor 

 on the western coast of Ireland. " Every creel 

 of that is a ridge of piveattifiSy with the blessing 

 of God upon it/' was the remark of a poor Irish- 

 man to an observant traveller. In the deep but 

 clear water which surrounds that and other open 

 rocky coasts, the Tangles can be descried far 

 below the surface, forming miniature groves of 

 luxuriant growth, their long and leafy fronds 

 waving to and fro in the transparent medium, 

 peopled by strange creatures of the deep, and 

 invested with the feather-like tufts of the lesser 

 and filiform algae, reveal to the observer their 

 importance in the economy of animal and vege- 

 table life inhabiting our shores. In the seas of 

 the southern hemisphere, on the shores of Australia 

 and New Zealand, the lesser forms of our Lamina- 

 riacese are represented by gigantic species belonging 

 to the allied genera of Lessonia, Durvilleae, Macro- 

 cystis, and Nereocystis. Several species of the 

 former are particularly abundant in the seas near 



