OUR MARINE ALGiE. 
39 
of the Fucal, or littoral zone, commencing at high water 
mark, in which the Melanosperms abounds; the Laminarian 
zone, where forests of the large sea-weed Laminaria cligitata 
luxuriate ; and still further towards low water mark, and only 
uncovered at the ebb of spring-tides, the Coralline zone. But 
these divisions are only roughly descriptive, as the gradations 
are not found on all shores, and species of the different sub¬ 
orders are much intermixed. 
Of the economic uses of our sea-weed I will say but little. 
Man has not largely benefited by them in a direct way. 
They have been of some mercantile value as affording 
materials for the manufacture of kelp and iodine; and farmers 
near the coast cart off great quantities as manure for their 
lands. Of the edible qualities of our sea-weeds I cannot 
boast. The Chondrus crispus, or Irish moss, used to be in 
great request as affording a nourishing diet. “ Dulse and 
Tangle ” were formerly cried for sale through the streets 
of Edinburgh, and eaten as a relish between slices of bread 
and butter.* For savoury dishes and delicious breakfasts we 
must assign the palm, not to our sea-weeds, but to their country 
cousins the fungi. But if voracious man gets little gain from 
them, there are myriads of God’s lesser creatures, which have a 
life to perpetuate and enjoy, that find abundance of food, 
groves of shelter, places of defence, and gardens of pleasure, 
in the Algse that decorate our sea-waslied shores. A writer 
in the August number of “ Good Words,” in an article on 
“ The Study of Small Shells,” says: “A calculation necessarily 
rough, but as likely to be under the truth as over it, led to 
the conclusion that, if it were possible to examine all the 
sea-weeds which the lowest tide leaves bare for a stretch of 
only twenty-five or thirty yards along that shore, 100,000,000 
living shell-bearing molluscs would be found. Of all 
these not even the smallest would, strictly speaking, be a 
microscopic object, though certainly requiring a lens for the 
determination of its species.” The sea-weeds so furnish 
food for the molluscs, these feed the fishes, and by them we 
are fed. 
I have only to add a few words on the aesthetic value of 
our Marine Algae, and on this topic I scarcely dare to speak, 
so enthusiastic do I feel. Holiday hours spent, say among 
* Sea-weeds are also said to be tbe basis of many jellies, gelatine, 
etc., which are found in commerce. Those which are made from this 
source may be recognised microscopically by the number of marine 
diatoms enclosed in them. Good hauls of rare species have been 
obtained from such unlikely material. —Ed. 
