A Seaside Museum 



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mentioned in our July issue, together with many others less 

 widely distributed. Occasionally, through the kindness of 

 friends, we are enabled to exhibit fresh specimens in the 

 Vivarium. 



Seaweeds. — Seaweeds are vegetables of the very simplest 

 organisation. They have no sap-tubes, and are nourished by 

 direct imbibition. If part of a dried seaweed is put into water, 

 that part only will swell up ; the rest will remain dry. Sea- 

 weeds bear no flowers, but there are formed in the substance 

 of the plant, in great abundance, spores which serve as seeds. 

 These spores possess an extraordinary power of swimming 

 like animalcules ; they plant themselves extensively and grow 

 readily. Seaweeds have " roots " only for fixation purposes. 

 Most of them are annuals. Seaweeds must be carefully dis- 

 tinguished from corallines, gorgonias (sea-fans) and sponges, 

 all of which belong to the animal kingdom. 



Pressed specimens of the Bladder- wrack, Saw-leaved Fucus, 

 the Cordweed (Covda filum), the terror of the sea-bather, the 

 Sea-oak (Halidrys), and many other common algae. 



Dried specimens of Seaweeds may be very effectively ex- 

 hibited under glass in frames. Coloured illustrations of them 

 suitable for framing have been repeatedly published. By far 

 the best, but at the same time the most expensive, are those 

 by Turner. A framed set of Turner's plates would equip and 

 ornament any Seaside Museum. 



IV. Sponges. — The common Crumb - of - bread Sponge 

 (Halichondria panicea) which forms the well-knoyvn yellowish 

 or greenish crusts on rocks and the stems of seaweeds. The 

 equally common Ciliated Sycon {Sycon ciliatum), which forms 

 little oval white sacs about two inches high on rocks. 



Oyster shells extensively bored by Cliona, a burrowing 

 sponge. This sponge also bores into limestone rocks. Much 

 damage has been done by it on the Dalmatian shore. It would 

 appear that the manner in which the boring is effected is 

 not properly understood. Some writers hold that the car- 

 bon dioxide which the animal gives off destroys the shell. 



