fringed with most delicate hairs. It has been observed of this lovely plant, that while it is growing it is not uncommon to see the rays of light decomposed as by a prism by this mass of minute filaments which fringe the margin. Dr. Harvey remarks of this sea-weed, that it is found pretty extensively in the seas of warm countries in both hemispheres, perhaps reaching its highest latitude on our shores. The red sea-weeds (Rhodosperms) are more common in the seas of the temperate zone than in the colder regions or near the Equator, and among them are the kinds sought with most eagerness by the amateur collectors of sea-weeds on our coasts. They exhibit marine vegetation in its loveliest forms, and though not all strictly red, being often of purplish or brownish hue, yet they have among them the red colour in great beauty, sometimes in its palest or brightest rose tint, and in other cases of richest scarlet or crimson. Often they are like delicate fragile leaves, rent even by the touch of the finger, as we strive to unroll their plaits. Sometimes they are like little trees, with slender hair-like branches, all entangling each other as they hang dripping from the waters, but exhibiting the utmost regularity, and minute beauty of structure, when we dispose them on paper. The individual forms of several of our olive species, as the Laminaria, and especially the Alaria, are graceful and elegant; but when they prevail, as some of the commoner kinds often do, at the halftide level, covering all the rocks and shores with a dark vegetation, they have a melancholy influence on the scenery; and when waves are rough, and clouds are dark, present a dreary waste. This kind of sea-weed usually lessens as we approach towards the low-water mark, while on the other hand, these are the plants which vegetate at greatest depth, and form submarine forests, into which the voyager, as he passes over the deep blue waters, looks down with wonder and delight. There he sees masses of sea-weeds whose trunks are as long as those of our highest trees, and whose leaves are like those of the Indian forests, and like them wave to and fro in grace and beauty, while their olive colour seems to deepen into blackness as the water becomes deeper. But many of the red sea-weeds need close examination to discover their beauty. No large masses cover our rocks or shores. Many are never seen at all by any but the marine botanist, who goes from the land and dredges them up from deep waters; and many need the aid of the microscope to detect one species from another. These sea-weeds seek the shade, and will not grow exposed to light and air; and where, as in some cases, they may occasionally do so, yet their less perfect and brilliant colour shows us that this is not their natural and most favourable condition. It is when far removed from light that they deepen into rich and glowing beauty, and strangely in this respect do they differ from the plants of our upper earth. We know well when the clinging ivy lends its greenness to the grey time-stained ruin, that should some branch creep through a crevice into the ruined darkness, it fades into a dull and sickly yellow or white. We know that our flowers lose all their beauty of colour when shut up where the sun's rays cannot reach them; but it is not so with sea-weeds. In the depths the olive becomes darker, the red and K purple are most perfect in hue; and Humboldt speaks of a beautiful marine plant which he found in the sea, near the Canary Isles, the Vine-leaved Fucus, which vegetates at the depth of one hundred and ninety-two feet, yet has leaves as green as those of the grass of the spring oak tree. On many of our shores the loveliest sea-weeds are never gathered, though everywhere some of the commonest kinds, as the Hair Flag, lie strewed about the sand or beach. And where there are rocky pools, we may gaze down upon some which redden in the shady nook formed by some little shelving eminence sufficient to protect them from the sun's brightest rays. The division of the sea-weeds into the olive, red, and green series, is not an arbitrary, but a natural one, for, in a great measure, with similarity of colour is connected a similar structure. It is not, however, so invariable as to be a perfect distinction. Among the red sea-weeds we find every shade of purple tint, and of a few of the darker kinds we almost hesitate as to whether we should pronounce them to be red or olive-green; while exposure to air and light, in some cases, turns a red sea-weed into a dull yellow or a dirty white hue, or renders its crimson of a bright scarlet ; and drying in the sun blackens almost all the olivegreen species. Yet in practically studying seaweeds, this presents little difficulty, for very generally we find the olive-green plants tough and leathery; the red usually frail and delicate, while the grass-green are always of simplest structure, and of tint little liable to change. In this almost constancy of colour the Algae differ greatly from the plants of our upper earth, among which colour is almost useless as a characteristic, giving us scarcely any idea of the nature or properties of the plant, and varying under circumstances of soil or culture. Thus we see the wild hyacinth trembling in the spring wood, and we call it the bluebell; but we step into the next copsewood, and there we find our favourite woodland flower arrayed in purest white. The "brown or purple heath sometimes greets us unexpectedly with snowy bells, and white blossoms sometimes surprise us on the root, where we expect to find the pink flowers of the Robert-leaved cranesbill. The fructification of the Alga is usually so minute, as to need the assistance of a microscope to detect it. Little wart-like excrescences, termed capsules, lie on the surface of the frond; or spots, called granules, are imbedded in its substance, or scattered on its surface. Some plants bear both these kinds of fruit, in which case the marine botanist terms the capsules the primary, and the granules the secondary fruit; though both capsules and granules contain seeds (sporules), which can produce a new plant. The grass-green seaweeds are remarkable for having seeds which possess a singular power of locomotion, in some of the plants of the series appearing to be voluntary, so that naturalists have not yet decided as to whether they may not be endowed with animal motion. The very commonest of all our red sea-weeds is the Hair Flag, or Landscape weed, (Plocamium coccineum). So frequent indeed is this plant, that every one who visits the sea-side must have seen it, and it is seldom omitted in those drawings of marine weeds which accompany pictures of groups |