
DT EL 
AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
Vol. II.—JULY, 1868.— No. 5. 
a OCR AO 
SEA-WEEDS. 
BY JOHN L. RUSSELL. 

Once, the plants which grow in the sea were considered of 
no value, and therefore were called weeds; a term applied 
to all kinds of vegetation which interferes with the regular 
crops of the agriculturist. Later and better inquiry had 
from time to time exhibited the immense value of these 
sea-plants ; but the term, in its odious signification, remains 
attached to them, as does likewise the classical name which 
botanically expresses this family, the Aue of Jussieu, and 
the Alga vilis of the great and familiarly read Latin poet. 
Tt would be impossible to state definitely the number of 
kinds of sea-weeds to be found in the waters of the globe, 
and every year adds some quite new to science, either in dif- 
ference of form or else in specific points. 
The Algw belong to a vast order of plants known as flower- 
less; but only so, because the organs which are large 
Prominent in most other plants, are in these rudimentary 
Eer minute, requiring the most patient research with the 
microscope to detect them. 
Yet notwithstanding the difficulty of finding the floral 
parts of these so-called flowerless plants, there are portions 
of the sea-weeds which bear, at certain seasons of the year, 
a a aamenearees amp thetic OR ea 
semen according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by the PEABODY oe gin OF 
in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Massach ity 
AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. II. 29 (225) 

