INTRODUCTION. 
XVll 
into hranchlets^ and ramelli into hranclileteens ; but it will oe in the same way that grown-up 
people smile at the spelling-book which enabled them to begin literature by stories of one- 
syllabled words. By the time my amateur beginners have learnt to know that ramelli, as 
hranclileteens, are distinct from ramuli, as hranchlets — have seen threads explained as filaments 
so often, that to forget what filaments mean is impossible, with other similar lessons — they will 
look at the pages of Phycologias, British and Foreign, with comparatively open eyes, and on 
their own heads will it be if they do not persevere further ! 
Moreover, it is believed that the plan here adopted, of arranging the subjects of observation 
in separate lines and in uniform order, will facilitate the necessary comparison of species with 
species. Thus, at a glance, colour can be matched with colour, substance with substance, form 
with form (under the title Character of Frond), &c., and a plant referred to the one with which 
it proves to agree. 
It is true, the absence of scientific generic classification and headings makes it difficult 
at first to discover to which set of species a plant may belong ; but, to meet this difficulty, two 
attempts are now made ; one of which is to throw brief generic and specific distinctions together 
in the descriptions. Thus, on the first page, in the account of the Sargassums, the statement 
that they have “branches bearing distinct leaves” is made of both, and is followed in both 
cases by a more particular description of the leaves. Now the fact of “ bearing distinct 
leaves” is a generic character, and separates the Sargassums from all the other plants that 
follow ; whereas the minute differences as to width, the presence of pores in the leaves, &c., are 
among the specific ones which distinguish S. vulgare from 8 . bacciferum. 
So of the Polysiphonias (Plate XXY., &c.), the true generic characters, that they are 
thread-like, and that the threads are jointed, and that the joints are marked with upright lines 
(internal tubes seen through), are repeated under each species ; while the specific distinctions as 
to the number of tubes visible, the more or less obscurity of the joints, and other matters, are 
added to each. 
But, besides this, in the second place, there will be found appended to this volume a 
Synopsis of Sea-weed Appearances, which it is hoped will be a great assistance to the collector in 
tracing any plant he may meet with to its generic, and, finally, its specific, home. In this the 
first step towards algological classification is as clearly marked as in the most scientific works, 
viz. the division of algae into three chief colour-groups, — olive, red, and grass-green but this 
stage over, scientific classification is laid aside, and the plants are grouped together by the 
more obvious characters of form and habit of growth. To begin at the beginning, however. 
The first inquiry of a collector must still be — Is my plant olive, red, or grass-green ? And 
this he must find out whenever he wishes to ascertain its name. In most cases it will be easy 
enough to do so, but in others he can only accomplish it by holding up the plant to the light, 
or by examining it through a pocket lens (a magnifying-glass used by all botanists, and to 
be carried in the pocket) ; or, better still, under the microscope. And here he must bear in 
mind that all algae are coloured one of the three colours named, unless faded by exposure. 
The tempting white bits so common on the shore near high-water mark, therefore, are worth- 
less, except to make a variety of appearance in a sea- weed picture or basket. 
* Not that the colour-groups are so arranged because of colour, hut because of structure ; consequently, in 
the few cases where colour and structure clash, colour gives way. Hence the exceptional red cases in the 
grass-green group, where the structure is strictly that of grass-green plants (Figs. 345 to 350.) 
