70 



ZOSTERA. 



and if torn from that one object they never affix 

 themselves to any other: so it is necessary to 

 use a chisel and mallet, or at all events a 

 geologist's hammer, for the purpose of detaching 

 the portion of rock or stone to which the plant 

 is adherent. Generally the geologist's hammer, 

 if properly chosen, answers every purpose. Almost 

 at the commencement of my last shore-season I 

 dropped both my chisels into a rock-pool, and 

 not being able to find them again, brought the 

 hammer into play ; and so useful was that 

 hammer, that I did not find it requisite to 

 procure a fresh set of chisels during the four 

 weeks of shore- searching. 



A plant has been mentioned, which does not 

 belong to the sea-weeds, although from its 

 residence at the bottom of the sea it is often 

 thought to be of that family ; this is the Zostera 

 marina, for a drawing of which see plate J, fig. 2, 

 a true flowering plant, growing with a real root 

 at the bottom of the sea. Its entire character 

 is so completely terrestrial, that it can at once 

 be distinguished from the alga. 



The zostera is an useful plant to the zoologist, 

 for it grows in great numbers, or rather in 

 great fields, afibrding pasture to innumerable 

 living beings, which he captures in his net or 



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