MANUAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 531 



covering with their stunted forms arctic rocks, and 

 there, in his hour of need, often affording to man a 

 scanty sustenance, enabling the polar traveller 

 somewhat to mitigate the pangs of hunger. Next 

 are the Fungals, often parasitic, or springing from 

 dead or decaying matter, confined within no narrow 

 bounds, — sometimes arranging themselves in circles, 

 and popularly known as " Fairy-rings/' — frequently 

 springing up in a night, increasing in size, and 

 arriving at a short-lived maturity ere noontide, and 

 disappearing with declining day, so as to cause any 

 rapid growth or sudden uprise to be denominated 

 "fungoid/' from its resemblance to these unstable 

 and often noxious plants. Lastly, we have the 

 Algals, mostly aquatic, filling ocean and sea, river 

 and lake, with innumerable individuals, forming 

 sub-marine forests at least equalling in extent those 

 of dry land, or as more minute existences in ponds 

 and still waters, rivalling the sands of the sea-shore 

 in their countless myriads. The " Brittle- worts/' 

 the last division of the Algals, constitute a most 

 perplexing family, whose relations are not easily 

 comprehended, and whose position as vegetables is 

 more influenced by strength of analogy than by 

 positive right. Here it is that we arrive at the 

 debateable land, the disputed territories,— a most 

 perplexing question, fruitful in dispute, and until 

 both sides are fully heard, and their respective titles 

 accurately examined, only to be provisionally settled 

 by arbitration between the belligerent naturalists 

 who have ranged themselves with either party. 



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