POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
ON THE 
MODE OF GROWTH OF SOME OF THE ALGAE. 
ILLUSTRATED BY A FEW OF THE COMMON KINDS. 
BY J. BRAXTON HICKS, M.D., F.R.S., F.L.S., &c. 
TT\ HE botanist who confines his attention to the study of the 
JL flov^ering (or, as they are called, phanerogamous) plants 
has a task relatively easier than he who devotes his attention to 
the so-called simpler forms of vegetable life. For, even if we 
exclude the fact that the principal portion of the phenomena of 
the former is visible to the naked eye, the changes which they 
undergo are considerably less and more regular than those of 
the lower order, and by far more easily observed. The term 
“ simple ” can only apply to the more simple composition of 
their component parts, while the number of changes which their 
forms undergo more than counterbalance this point in the time 
and trouble required for observation. Besides this, the tedium 
of watching the changes they pass through, and the difficulty of 
preserving them in their natural condition in order to secure 
the same changes, make their study one of much more arduous- 
ness than is to be found in observing the higher classes. Take, 
for instance, the growth from the seed : how easy it is to 
observe its construction and its germination, the formation of 
the various parts, the radicles, the ascending stem, the leaves 
with their various appendages, the flower and its parts, lastly, 
to the ovule. There is one rather difficult subject, however, 
which is not to be seen without care — namely, the fertilisation 
of the ovula, or young seed. Y r et the difficulties attending the 
study of the lower (flowerless, or cryptogamia) forms are of a 
different class. Here the study requires protracted watching ; 
VOL. vi. — NO. XXII. B 
