OCEAN FLOWERS AND THEIR TEACHINGS.

REAR
PP

Not the spoils of conquered s
Ocean's Willing off*rings the
From her treasure-house not riven,
But of her abundance given.

‘Dypes of that exhanstless store,
Mortal mind may ne‘er explore.

AND

THEIR TEACHINGS.

BATH:
BINNS AND GOODWIN.
EDINBURGH : JOHNSTONE,

LONDON : WHITTAKER AND CO.
DUBLIN: W. CURRY JUN. & CO.

Tue title we have selected for our volume, will prepare

the reader to look for other than scientific “teachings,”
since, to speak with botanical precision, our work does
not contain a single flowering plant—nor even are all
the specimens ‘referable to the vegetable kingdom.
But we shall, it is hoped, be readily pardoned for
adopting, as the designation of a volume containing so
large a proportion of poetry, a name not wholly
unknown in song—one, too, so truly descriptive of
these elegant productions.

We have indeed been anxious that what little
science our book contains, should be correct ; but our
chief object has been, to give such interesting inform-
ation as might tend to awaken curiosity, and excite

to further enquiry ;—and above all, to associate with

PREFACE.

¢ those beautiful and wonderful objects which clothe
our rocks, such “teachings” as might deepen in the
mind the feelings of devotion to their glorious Author.
And since, as with flowers, so with these productions,
| —their beauty and interest seem to increase by famili-
arity with the grand and lovely scenery with which,
in their natural state, they are surrounded, we have
devoted a portion of our pages to Ocean itself, the
magnificent home of these “children of the deep;”

trespassing yet farther on the time of the reader,

for the sake of giving some few passages on the
advantages of the study of Nature.

In these two divisions of our work, (and indeed

best achieved, by selecting from the writings of as great
a variety of approved authors, as the size of our volume
would allow; and only hope our readers may feel some
of that imterest as they proceed, which we, who have

been united in the pleasant task of planning and

Ze : throughout,) we have thought our purpose would be
| F 5
arranging the collection, have ourselves enjoyed—an
}

interest, ever increasing as we pursued the subject.

“Wey

oa)

ee RY CHAPTER.

WEET is the lore which Nature brings,”
says a great poet of nature, Wordsworth ;
and it is in the hope of enabling others

to extract more and more of this sweetness,

>'
J

mat “Nature’s Teachings.

»
\ee) The first and sweetest of these lessons we would
’ wish to be that embodied in the following question,
which occurs in the tale of “Gertrude,” by the
// Author of “Amy Herbert;” works whose many beauties
\ only make us the more deeply regret that they should be
tainted with the errors of a peculiar and too popular school.
“Can you not fancy the infinite charm of being able to
read the spirit of nature truly—of being so thoroughly
religious, as never to look coldly on the meanest flower,
because God made it; and really to feel that ‘His voice is in
the thunder, and his glory in the seas?’ This is indeed
precious ‘lore;’ and with a mind thus attuned, the glories

of ocean, the crested billows, the ever-changing hues of that

that we venture to unfold another volume of

2 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

majestic plain, the solemn, yet soothing cadence of its waves,
the plants, the animals which find their home in the waters,
the delicate sea-shell, the beautiful alga, the curious and
elegant zoophyte, will be all felt and received as so many
reflections of the glory of Him, who is infinite both in wisdom
and love.”

The advantages, as regards the arts and sciences, of a taste
for the beauties of Nature, are thus ably pointed out by
Percival.* —“ That sensibility to beauty, which, when culti-
vated and improved, we term taste, is universally diffused
through the human species; and it is most uniform with
respect to those objects, which being out of our power, are
not liable to variation, from accident, caprice, or fashion.
The verdant lawn, the shady grove, the boundless ocean,
and the starry firmament, are contemplated with pleasure
by every attentive beholder. But the emotions of different
spectators, though similar in kind, differ widely in degree:
and to relish, with full delight, the enchanting scenes of
nature, the mind must be uncorrupted by avarice, sensuality,
or ambition; quick in her sensibilities; elevated in her
sentiments ; and devout in her affections. He who possesses
such exalted powers of perception and enjoyment, may almost
say, with the poet—

“¢T care not, Fortune, what you me deny,
You cannot rob me of free nature’s grace :
You cannot shut the windows of the sky,
Through which Aurora shows her brightening face ;
You cannot bar my constant feet to trace
The woods and lawns, by living streams at eve.
Let health my nerves and finer fibres brace,
And I their toys to the great children leave ;
Of fancy, reason, virtue, nought can me bereave !’

* Moral and Literary Dissertations.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER, 3

“Perhaps such ardent enthusiasm may not be compatible
with the necessary toils and active offices, which Providence
has assigned to the generality of men. But there are none
to whom some portion of it may not prove advantageous ;
and if it were cherished by each individual in that degree
which is consistent with the indispensable duties of his
station, the felicity of human life would be considerably
augmented. From this source the refined and vivid pleasures
of the imagination are almost entirely derived; and the
elegant arts owe their choicest beauties to a taste for the
contemplation of nature. Painting and sculpture are express
imitations of visible objects: and where would be the charms
of poetry, if divested of the imagery and embellishments
which she borrows from rural scenes? Painters, statuaries,
and poets, therefore, are always ambitious to acknowledge
themselves the pupils of nature; and as their skill increases,
they grow more and more delighted with every view of the
animal and vegetable world, But the pleasure resulting
from admiration, is transient; and to cultivate taste, without
regard to its influence on the passions and affections, ‘is to
rear a tree for its blossoms, which is capable of yielding the
richest and most valuable fruit.’ Physical and moral beauty
bear so intimate a relation to each other, that they may be
considered as different gradations in the scale of excellence;
and the knowledge and relish of the former, shouldbe deemed
only a step to the nobler and more permanent enjoyments of
the latter.”

“ And there is happily,” as Jane Taylor remarks,* “this
difference between natural, rational pleasures, and those

that are artificial, and it is one by which they may readily be

* Contributions of Q. Q.

4 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

distinguished ;—that from the former, the transition to
religious thoughts and engagements is easy and agreeable.
Whether we contemplate nature with the eye of taste, or
investigate it with that of philosophy, our thoughts are
readily led upwards, to the great Author of all, ‘all whose
works praise Him; and it is at such times that the Christian
can say with peculiar appropriateness—

“This awful God is ours,

Our Father and our Friend.’

“But from trifling thoughts and dissipating amusements,
the transition is violent and difficult indeed; and is, in fact,
very rarely attempted.”

To write elaborate panegyrics on the beauties of nature
might wellbe deemed a vain and useless expenditure of time,
if not a folly akin to that which would “gild refined gold,
or paint the lily, or add new perfume to the violet’s breath.”
Popular taste has of late years undergone a marked change
in favour of simplicity and reality ; and nature is at last
recognized as the true model and standard of all that is
really beauteous and admirable in the works of art. The
effects of this change are clearly visible in our literature.
Let any one take the popular poetry of the reigns of Anne
and the first Georges, with its formal stilted descriptions of
nature, thickly besprinkled with allusions to heathen mytho-
logy, and compare it with the fresh and glowing pictures of
Cowper, of Wordsworth, of Coleridge or Howitt, and he will
be convinced that in the latter case the writers described

what they had felt and enjoyed—in the former, what they had
read or heard about.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 5

A taste for the picturesque in natural scenery, like a taste
for music, is indeed much oftener professed than felt; but the
very affectation of it proves that its value is appreciated.

Many, however, who are enthusiastic in their admiration of
nature in her grander features, are very far from compre-
hending in their admiration her finer and minuter traits.
They admire nature as a whole, they care not to individualize
her charms; and hence they look coldly upon the study of
natural history. But are they wise in so doing? We think
not. There are few pursuits, which, when taken up in a right
spirit and pursued within due bounds, are capable of afford-
ing more true satisfaction to the understanding, or which tend
more to calm that feverish longing after the ideal to which most
minds are at times subject, than the study of natural history.
It is the study of reality; and it has been well observed,* that
“The study of natural history is within the reach of every
one; and he who is engaged in it is presented at every step
in his progress, with something capable of awakening pleas-
ing emotions. The whole earth is to him a vast museum,
in which are crowded beautiful and sublime objects, animate
and inanimate, in an almost endless variety, all combining to
amuse the understanding and gladden the heart.

“This search into nature produces also a highly beneficial
influence on the understanding. Mathematics do not more
effectually strengthen and discipline the judgment. By acon-
tinual analysis, comparison, and generalization of things, the
study of natural history teaches the art of thinking clearly
and accurately, and of reasoning with precision and force,

with amuch less degree of weariness, than that which usually

* “Naturalist’s Poetical Companion,” by a Fellow of the
Linnean Society.

ee eee

6 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

accompanies the study of simple quantities and mere abstract
forms. An attention to natural objects also improves the taste.
Nature is the admitted standard of perfection. The student
who is closely examining the proportions of her inimitable
forms, is taking the surest way to acquire a correct judg-
ment of what is fit and elegant.”

The opinion of Professor Henslow* so well follows up
these ideas, that we cannot omit it. He says, “The old and
bygone sneer of ‘cui bono,’ by which the naturalist was
formerly taunted, now offers no serious impediment in the
way of those who are willing to enquire for themselves.
Even the few who still think that no advantage would result
from the encouragement of natural history as a branch of
general education, no longer attempt any very decided oppo-
sition wherever they meet with others prepared to uphold it.
Our pursuit has been so often and so satisfactorily shown
to be productive of direct practical benefit to the general
interests of society, that nothing further need here be said
on that topic. But we would more especially recommend
it as a resource which is capable of affording the highest
intellectual enjoyment ; and as much worthy of general notice
for mental recreation, as air and exercise are for our bodily
health.”

The somewhat contemptuous tone in which Dr, Johnson
has spoken of the collectors of “stones, mosses, and shells,”
has called forth the following reply, which we give the more
readily for the sake of the “note” appended to it; and we
think our readers will agree with us, that the sentiments
therein expressed are more in accordance with the tastes, and
I may say the convictions of the present day, than those of
“The Doctor.”

* Descriptive and Physiological Botany.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 7

“ And to have rambled in search of shells and flowers, had but ill suited

with the capacity of Newton.’—RamB.er, No. 83.

Nor so!—oh, not unworthy task

Of mightiest mind,
Humbly at Nature’s door to knock, and ask
From out her treasured store
Of hidden lore,

The truth, her least and lowest holds enshrined. |

Not stars alone, that high above,
The world-quire lead,
In mystic order marshal’d, brightly move ;
But all things here below,
In even flow,

To one same heavenly air their mazy circles tread.

One is their Maker,—One His name,
And One His praise !
The key-note and the chord for aye the same,
Whether yon glorious star,
That shines afar,

Or simplest weed of earth, the anthem raise.

In evry truth, the lowest, dwells
A gleam, a tone
To watchful souls that of the loftiest tells ;
As in thin films-the light
Of rainbows bright—

As in the whispering shell the voice of Ocean’s moan.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

What not thy Maker to create
Unworthy found,
Hold’st thou unworthy thee to contemplate ?
This know—e’en shell and flower
Are links of power,
With thee in Being’s mighty chain close bound.

We stand as wondering children stand
By sea-beat shore,
Gath’ring up Ocean’s treasures from the sand;
Yet doth th’ exhaustless deep
Tts fulness keep:

Some scatter’d stores they glean—earth’s wisest do no
more.*
(M.S.) A. J. Vipat.

Yet the Doctor himself, though no very zealous worshiper
of nature, either in the whole or in detail, yields a kind of
modified approbation to the study. He says: ‘Mankind
must necessarily be diversified by various tastes, since life
affords and requires such multiplicity of employments, and a
nation of naturalists is neither to be hoped or desired ; but
it is surely not improper to point out a fresh amusement
to those who languish in health, and repine in plenty, for

* “Science therefore, in relation to our faculties, still remains boundless
and unexplored ; and after the lapse of a century and a-half from the era
of Newton’s discoveries, during which every department of it has been
cultivated with a zeal and energy which have assuredly met their full
return, we remain in the situation in which he figured himself, standing
on the shore of a wide ocean, from whose beach we have culled some of
those innumerable beautiful productions, which it casts up with lavish
prodigality, but whose acquisition can be regarded as no diminution of
the treasures that remain.’”’—Srir Jonn Herscuext, ‘Discourse on the
Study of Natural Philosophy.”

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 9

want of some source of diversion that may be less easily
exhausted; and to inform the multitudes of both sexes, who
are burdened with every new day, that there are many shows
which they have not seen.”

Chalmers, in his Bridgewater Treatise, has beautifully
accounted for the too frequent tendency there is in our minds
to disparage those pursuits with which we do not ourselv
fully sympathize. We will first give a passage from the
Rambler* in which this tendency is described :—

“Between men of different studies and professions, may be
observed a constant reciprocation of reproaches. The collector
of shells and stones derides the folly of him who pastes leaves

and flowers on paper, pleases himself with colors that are

perceptibly fading, and amasses with care what cannot be

preserved. The hunter of insects stands amazed that any
man can waste his short time upon lifeless matter, while
many tribes of animals yet want their history. Every one
is inclined not only to promote his own study, but to exclude
others from regard; and having heated his imagination with
some favourite pursuit, wonders that the rest of the world are
not seized with the same passion.”

Now hear Chalmers’ account of this matter.—“It is the
very perfection of the Divine workmanship which leads
every inquirer into the wonders of nature, to imagine a
surpassing worth and grace and dignity in his own
special department of it. The fact is altogether notorious
that in order to attain a high sense of the importance of
any science, and of the worth and beauty of the objects which

it embraces, nothing more is necessary than the intent and

* Rambler, No. 83.

a
ee ee ee

10 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

persevering study of them. Whatever the walk of philosophy
may be on which a man may enter, that is the walk which
of all others he conceives to be the most enriched by all that

is fitted to entertain the intellect or arrest the admiration of

the enamoured scholar. ‘The astronomer who can unravel

|
|

the mechanism of the heavens, or the chemist who can trace

the atomic processes of matter upon earth, or the meta-

physician who can assign the laws of human thought, or the
grammarian who can discriminate the niceties of language, or

the naturalist who can classify the flowers and the birds and

the shells, and the minerals and the insects, which so teem and

multiply in this world of wonders, each of these respective
| inquirers is apt to become the worshiper of his theme, and
to look with a sort of indifference bordering on contempt

towards what he imagines the far less interesting track of
his fellow-labourers. Now each is right in the admiration
he renders to the grace and grandeur of that field which
himself has explored; but all are wrong in the distaste they
feel, or rather in the disregard they cast on the other fields
which they have never entered. We should take the testi-
| mony of each, to the worth of that which he does know; and

then the unavoidable inference is, that that must be indeed
} a replete and a gorgeous universe in which we dwell, and
: a still more glorious the Eternal Mind from whose conception

it arose, and whose prolific fiat gave birth to it in all its

;

i vastness and variety.”

| There is one aspect of the study of natural history, in our
2 view so important—namely, its adaptation as a pursuit to
the invalid—that we gladly avail ourselves of a few remarks
on the subject from the pen of a medical friend.—

“None but the naturalist can fully appreciate the enjoy-

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 11

ment there is in his pursuit, or the tranquilizing effect it has
upon the mind.

“Tt is said that naturalists seldom become insane ;
and perhaps there is something in the habitual contem-
plation of the actual, and in the tracing of cause and effect,

that restrains the mind from becoming unhinged by trains

of false reasoning—and mental derangement is perverted
reasoning.

“It is true that individuals of lofty mind have sometimes
looked with indifference and contempt on the labours of the
naturalist, deeming him occupied with puerile and trifling
objects ; but they forget that by a close observation of these
apparent trifles, large additions have been made to the hap-
piness of the human race. Many a treaty of peace, many a
battle, has had little effect upon the general happiness of
private individuals; but the discovery of a new plant, a new
mineral, has relieved the suffering, or added to the comforts
of thousands. ‘Thus, while the names of statesmen who have
extended the territory of their nation, or of warriors who
had ravaged the territories of others, are lauded to the skies,
the discoverer of quinquinna, the cultivator of coffee, should
not be forgotten.

“But my present object is not so much to extol the study of
natural history in a general point of view, as to impress upon
my readers its desirableness as a pursuit, when health fails,
and the common every-day engagements of life are broken
inupon. Ido this both in my capacity as a physician, and from
my experience as an invalid. In my professional capacity I
have frequently been a witness to the miserable state of mind
of those patients, who, having been actively engaged in the

business of life, are suddenly laid aside from all their custo-

mary employments, while they have no taste for any thing

12 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

else. The disease under which they may be labouring,
often produces not a tenth part of the discomfort and unhap-
piness consequent on the direful complaint of having nothing
to do. * * * Reading often wearies head, eyes, and
mind alike;—besides, it is perhaps necessary to be much in
the open air, and how melancholy is it to ramble up and down
without an object ! On such patients, I would urge the culti-
vation of a taste for natural history, and just as much pursuit
of it, as their circumstances will admit. * * Perhaps the
invalid may have to resort for health to the sea-coast, and
there abide for a considerable time. And here he will
peculiarly need the solace of such pursuits as we are recom-
mending. ‘The majestic grandeur of ocean will indeed
strike him with wonder and admiration; he will love to
wander along the sands, or sit upon the beach and listen to
the murmur of the waves; to gaze on the crested billows
rolling in, fierce and impetuous like an armed multitude in
the storm of battle; but after a while, he will be tired of
being a mere passive spectator, and will long for something to
do. It is now especially, that if he have a taste for natural
history, that taste will amply repay him. The sea is a vast
magazine of partly unexplored wealth; and there are objects
connected with it, which will open new fields of interest.
Which of us, as a child, has not been gratified with those
beautiful productions of the deep, the sea-shells, even though
we used them merely as playthings? And when we apply
our minds to consider them with more advanced knowledge,
we shall see, not merely in the shell, but in the animal which
is its inhabitant, abounding proofs of Divine wisdom and
goodness. Why has the Creator been so lavish of elegance

and beauty in the depths of ocean? How vain a question!

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 13

Is not our God a perfect being ?—and all his works must
therefore be perfect. Beauty is but ideal; some objects may
appear to our eyes more wonderful and beauteous than others;
but not the faintest line that encompasses a shell or a flower,
but has been designed by infinite wisdom. Look again at
those tangled weeds thrown up by the waves, or covering the
rocks at low water ; there are mines of interest to the dili-
gent enquirer.

“Well do I recollect the feelings of pleasure which pervaded
my own mind, when I first began to examine these pro-
ductions. I was then an invalid, and had had my fairest
prospects in life blasted by disease; hope, as far as this life was
concerned, scarcely lent me her solace; and I took up the sub-
ject, merely to wile away the languor and ennui with which I
was oppressed. I meant not to go far into the study, but
merely to get acquainted with their characters and names.
As I proceeded, great was my delight when I became ac-
quainted with the distinctive character of the Zoophytes.
And when I examined both them and the Algxw more
minutely, and discovered the wonderful structure and
economy of each kind, I can scarcely describe the thrill of
wonder and admiration which I experienced. And whilst
my mind was withdrawn from vain regrets, and raised in
adoration to the God of merey, my frame was invigorated by
the healthful sea-breezes.

“As a fellow-sufferer then, no less than as a medical adviser,
I can recommend the study of natural history to those—and
in this world of sickness and sorrow, there are many—whose
full vigour of mind or body has been impaired; and let no one
think slightingly of any pursuit, which, not put in the place

of the higher realities of religion, but used as an auxiliary

14 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

to them, has such capabilities of restoring tone to the mind
and vigour to the body.” *

The following remarks from an able and scientific pen,t
may fitly conclude what we have to say on the study of
Nature.

“To those few well-informed persons who still from old

prejudices accuse us,

. of dropping buckets into empty wells,

And growing old in drawing nothing up,’

we may say, that till the well of Creation be emptied, there
is no danger of our returning from our labours without
abundant food for thought; and if we do not always make the
best use of it, the blame must rest with us, and not with
natural history. * * * * It is enough for her if she but
furnish food which is capable of nourishing the well-directed
heart; it is not her province either to cleanse that heart, or
to give it powers of digestion. For this she must refer her
votary to a higher and holier voice ; and if she ever speak of
looking

‘Through Nature up to Nature’s God,’

she does so with a humble deference to her elder sister,
whose province it is to lead the heart to that contemplation.
Science and religion must not be confounded :—each has her
several path distinct, but not hostile; each in her way is
friendly to man, and where both unite they will ever be
found to be his best protectors; the one a light to the eyes,

opening to him the mysteries of the material universe—the

* J, Marchness, M. D., Hastings. (M.S.)

+‘ Manual of the British Alge,’ by the Hon. W. H. Harvey.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 15

other a lamp to his feet, leading him to the immaterial,
incorruptible and eternal. The eye, it is true, will grow dim
when the light of this world fails; and happy is he who has
then a lamp lighted from heaven, and trimmed on earth, to
guide him through the hours of darkness. But the eye
must not be blamed because it is not the lamp; nor should
science be disdained because she leaves us far short of fresh
conceptions of the invisible world. Her highest flight is but
to the threshold of religion; for what a celebrated writer
has said of philosophy generally, is equally applicable to
every branch of scientific inquiry :—‘ In wonder all philoso-
phy began, in wonder all ends, and admiration fills up the
interspace. But the first wonder is the offspring of ignorance,
and the last is the parent of adoration. The first is the
birth-throe of our knowledge; the last, is its euthanasy and
apotheosis.’ ”

“What are Art and Science,” asks one of the authors of the

““Guesses at Truth,” “if not a running commentary on
Nature ? What are poets and philosophers, but torchbearers
leading us through the mazes and recesses of God’s two
mighty temples, the sensible and the spiritual world? Books,
as Dryden has aptly termed them, are spectacles to read
Nature. schylus and Aristotle, Shakspeare and Bacon,
are the priests who preach and expound the mysteries of
man and of the universe. They teach us to understand and
feel what we see, to decipher and syllable the hieroglyphics
of the senses. Do you not, since you have read Wordsworth,
feel a fresher and more thoughtful delight whenever you
hear a cuckoo, whenever you see a daisy, whenever you
play with a child?”

This is as true in fact as it is beautiful in expression ; and

16 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

our present attempt is to carry out this idea, to use these
“spectacles,” and thus to administer materials for a “fresher
and more thoughtful delight,” to those who now gaze with
somewhat of undefined and bewildered feelings on the Sea
and its Productions.

It is an interesting employment to compare the various
descriptions of different writers one with another, and to
trace in the aspects under which they view the same object,
the varied characteristics of their individual mind. The
misanthropic spirit, “ aweary of the world,” and dissatisfied
with its fellow-men, exults in the sea, as a thing independant
of man’s control; whilst a happier and more social temper
leads its possessor to rejoice in the exhilarating and health-
giving influences of Ocean.

There is scarcely any one natural object which we can
select which has been the object of so much literary homage
as the Sea, “the multitudinous sea,” “the always wind-
obeying sea,” as that great voice of Nature, Shakspeare,
with all but Greek facility and grace of epithet, has called it.

Can the glorious lines of Byron addressed to this mag-
nificent work of the Creator, ever be forgotten, whilst the
English language lasts? Would that he had never written

anything we less wish to remember !

“ Rout on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean, roll !
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain.
Man marks the earth with ruin; his control
Stops with the shore—upon the watery plain
The wrecks are all thy deed—nor doth remain
A shadow of man’s ravage, save his own,

When for a moment, like a drop of rain

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 17

He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan,

Without a graye, unknell’d, uncoffin’d, and unknown.

The armaments which thunderstrike the walls
Of rock-built cities, bidding nations quake
And monarchs tremble in their capitals,

The oak leviathans, whose huge ribs make
Their clay creator the vain title take

Of Lord of thee and arbiter of war,—

These are thy toys, and as the snowy flake
They melt into thy yeast of waves, which mar

Alike the armada’s pride or spoils of Trafalgar.

Thy shores are empires, changed in all save thee.

Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, where are they ?
Thy waters wasted them while they were free,
And many a tyrant since ; their shores obey

The stranger, slave or savage ; their decay

Has dried up realms to deserts: not so thou,
Unchangeable save to thy wild waves’ play—
Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow—

Such as Creation’s dawn beheld, thou rollest now.”

With this address of Byron’s we may compare one

Barry Cornwall in his “Marcian Colonna.”

“On thou vast ocean! ever-sounding sea !
Thou symbol of a drear immensity !
Thou thing which windeth round the solid world
Like a huge animal, which downward hurl’d
From the black clouds, lies, weltering and alone,

Lashing and writhing till its strength be gone ;

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

Thy voice is like the thunder, and thy sleep

So like a giant’s slumber, loud and deep.

Thou speakest in the east and in the west

At once; and on thy heavily-laden breast,

Fleets come and go; and shapes that have no life

Or motion yet are moved and meet in strife.

The earth hath nought of this ; nor chance nor change
Ruffles its surface, and no spirits dare

Give answer to the tempest-waken’d air ;

And o’er its wastes the weakly tenants range

At will, and wound its bosom as they go.

Eyer the same, it hath no ebb, no flow;

But in their stated rounds the seasons come,

And pass like visions to their viewless home,

And come again and vanish: the young spring
Looks ever bright with leaves and blossoming ;
And winter always winds its sullen horn ;

And the wild autumn, with a look forlorn,

Dies in his stormy manhood ; and the skies

Weep, and flowers sicken when the summer flies.
Thou only, terrible ocean, hast a power,

A will, a voice; and in thy wrathful hour,

When thou dost lift thine anger to the clouds,

A fearful and magnificent beauty shrouds

Thy broad green forehead. If thy waves be driven
Backwards and forwards by the shifting wind,
How quickly dost thou thy great strength unbind,
And stretch thine arms, and war at once with heaven!
Thou trackless and unmeasurable main !

On thee no record ever lived, again

INTRODUCTORY CHARTER. 19

To meet the hand that writ it; live nor dead
Hath ever fathom’d thy profoundest deeps,
Where, haply, thy huge monster swells and sleeps,
King of his watery limit, who, ’tis said,

Can move the mighty ocean into storm.

Oh! wonderful thou art, great element!

And fearful in thy spleeny humours bent,

And lovely in repose :—thy summer form

Is beautiful ; and when thy silver waves

Make music in earth’s dark and winding caves,

T love to wander on thy pebbly beach,

And hearken to the thoughts thy waters teach :—

Eternity, Eternity and Power.”

In the following beautiful lines of Bernard Barton, there
is an idea similar to that of the closing line in Barry Corn-

wall’s address—the idea of Eternity.—

“BEAUTIFUL, sublime, and glorious ;
Wild, majestic, foaming free ;
Over time itself victorious,
Image of eternity!
Epithet-exhausting Ocean,
’T were as easy to control
In the storm thy billowy motion,

As thy wonders to unroll.

“Sun, and moon, and stars shine o’er thee,
See thy surface ebb and flow;
Yet attempt not to explore thee

In thy soundless depths below.

20 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

Whether morning’s splendours steep thee
With the rainbow’s glowing grace,
Tempests rouse, or navies sweep thee,

’Tis but for a moment’s space.

“Earth, —her valleys, and her mountains,

Mortal man’s behests obey :

Thy unfathomable fountains
Scoff his search, and scorn his sway.

Such art thou, stupendous Ocean !—
But if overwhelm’d by thee,

Can we think without emotion
What must thy Creator be ?”

Crabbe, whose early residence by the sea-coast gave him a
life-long interest in maritime objects, has thus painted the

sea in his own graphic manner :—

“Tourn to the watery world !—but who to thee

(A wonder yet unview’d) shall paint the sea?
Various and vast, sublime in all its forms,

When lull’d by zephyrs or when roused by storms ;
Its colors changing, when from clouds and sun,
Shades after shades upon the surface run ;
Embrown’d and horrid now, and now serene

In limpid blue, and evanescent green ;

And oft the fogey banks on ocean lie,

Lift the fair sail, and cheat the experienced eye.”

Wordsworth is not by any means a poet of the sea; the
mountain and the lake are his peculiar property; yet has he
given a beautiful description of ocean’s waters in the follow-

ing lines, written by the sea-shore in the Isle of Man.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. a1

‘“Wuy stand we gazing on the sparkling brine,
With wonder smit by its transparency,
And all enraptured with its purity?
Because the unstain’d, the clear, the crystalline,
Have ever in them something of benign;
Whether in gem, in water, or in sky,
A sleepful infant’s brow, or wakeful eye
Of a young maiden, only not divine.
Scarcely the hand forbears to dip its palm
For beverage drawn as from a mountain well ;
Temptation centres in the liquid calm;
Our daily raiment seems no obstacle
To instantaneous plunging in deep sea,

And reveling in long embrace with thee.”*

Nor can we pass over unnoticed the exquisite lines of
Campbell, written at St. Leonard’s, though their length

forbids our giving them entire.

“Hart to thy face and odours, glorious sea !
*T were thanklessness in me to bless thee not,
Great beauteous being! in whose breath and smile
My heart beats calmer, and my very mind
Inhales salubrious thoughts. How welcomer
Thy murmurs, than the murmurs of the world !
Though like the world thou fluctuatest, thy din
To me is peace, thy restlessness repose.
E’en gladly I exchange yon spring-green lanes,

With all the darling field-flowers in their prime,

* The sea-water on the coast of the Isle of Man is singularly pure and

beautiful.

22 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

And gardens haunted by the nightingale’s
Long trills and gushing ecstacies of song,

For these wild headlands, and the seamen’s clang.—

The spirit of the universe in thee
Is visible ; thou hast in thee the life—

The eternal, graceful, and majestic life

Of nature; and the natural human heart

Is therefore bound to thee with holy love.

There is a magnet-like attraction in

These waters to the imaginative power,

That links the viewless with the visible,

And pictures things unseen. To realms beyond
Yon highway of the world my fancy flies,

When by her tall and triple masts we know
Some noble voyager, that has to woo

The trade-winds and to stem the eliptic surge.
The coral groves—the shores of conch and pearl,
Where she will cast her anchor, and reflect

Her cabin-window lights on warmer waves,

And under planets brighter than our own:
The nights of palmy isles, that she will see
Lit boundless by the fire-fly—all the smells
Of tropic fruits that will regale her—all
The pomp of nature, and the inspiriting
Varieties of life she has to greet,

Come swarming o’er the meditative mind.

Old Ocean"was,
Infinity of ages ere we breathed

Existence.—And he will be beautiful

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 23

When all the living world that sees him now
Shall roll unconscious dust around the sun.
Quelling from age to age the vital throb

In human hearts, Death shall not subjugate
The pulse that swells in Ais stupendous breast,
Or interdict his minstrelsy to sound

In thundering concert with the quiring winds ;
But long as man to parent Nature owns
Instinctive homage, and in times beyond

The power of thought to reach, bard after bard
Shall sing thy glory, beatific Sea.”

The “attraction to the imaginative power” attributed by
Campbell to the sea, appears to have been felt by many
writers—by Montgomery, for instance, in the following lines

from his Address to the Ocean, written at Scarborough.

“Att hail to the ruins, the rocks, and the shores !
Thou wide-rolling Ocean, all hail!
Now brilliant with sunbeams, and dimpled with oars,
Now dark with the fresh-blowing gale,
While soft o’er thy bosom the cloud-shadows sail,
And the silver-wing’d sea-fowl on high
Like meteors bespangle the sky,
Or dive in the gulph, or triumphantly ride,
Like foam on the surges, the swans of the tide.

From the tumult and smoke of the city set free,
With eager and awful delight,
From the crest of the mountain I gaze upon thee ;

I gaze,—and am changed at the sight;

an teeemeennin a j

24 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

For mine eye is illumined, my genius takes flight,
My soul, like the sun, with a glance

Embraces the boundless expanse,

And moves on thy waters, wherever they roll,

From the day-darting zone to the night-shadow’d pole.”

In Miss Edgeworth’s clever tale, “Ennui,” she represents
her hero, Lord Glenthorn (the victim of ennui), as finding
his chief recreation in sitting by the sea-shore.

“Tt was my regular practice to sit down upon a certain
large stone, at the foot of a rock, to watch the ebbing of the
tide. There was something in the contemplation of the sea
and of the tides, which was fascinating to my mind. I could
sit and look at the ocean whole hours together; for without
any exertion of my own, I beheld a grand operation of nature,
accompanied with a sort of vast monotony of motion and
sound, which lulled me into reverie.”

Such reveries indeed may become both delightful and
profitable, as the following lines well indicate :—

“Tr ever to mortals sensations are given
As pledges of purer ones hoped for in heaven,
They are those which arise, when, with humble devotion,
We gaze upon thee, thou magnificent Ocean.”

BERNARD Barton.

“ Ow! how I love to stand on some high rock,
And gaze upon the foaming wild abyss
Of ocean—all unshaken by the shock .
Of billows beating ’gainst the precipice;
To gaze upon the whizl, and hear the hiss
Of thousand surges bursting at its base.

To me there is a horrid charm in this—

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

bo
Or

A charm to see the white foam run its race,

And as one wave dissolves, another take its place.

Thou hast thy creatures too, a populous world

Of uncouth beings—monsters of the deep,

That are born there and die: thy billows curl’d,
Mount over caverns where the white pearls sleep,
And, hid within thy depths, the seaweeds creep,
And grow beneath the surf that widely raves,
Unmindful of the storms that o’er them leap,
And the rude winds that lash the dreadful waves,

Until, like beaten hounds, they howling seek thy caves.

Farewell, vast Ocean !—beautiful art thou

In calm and tempest.—Now calm reigns o’er thee,
Serene and quiet is thy glossy brow,

Thou glorious mirror of the Deity !

And how sublimely grand art thou, when He,

In foaming characters, upon thy face

Writes His almighty anger! Thou, proud sea!
Art the wide page—the chosen tablet-place,

On which he chooses his tremendous wrath to trace.

O Ocean? it is o’er thy trackless way
He shows himself most mighty :—there he wields
The sceptre that the winds and waves obey :—

He rides in storms above thy watery fields.

26 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

Thou seemest most his own; to man he yields
Part of the rule o’er earth,—but over thee
He shows his anger :—and his mercy shields
The seaman over many a stormy sea,—

And there sweeps many a one into eternity.

“T am not young—my life has past its prime—
Perhaps I ne’er again shall tread this shore.
Life is a billow on the sea of time
That, once burst, rises never more.

Perchance mine soon may melt amid the roar
Of tempests rising on that boundless sea:
There will my grief and sorrow all give o’er,—
There shall life’s joy or misery cease to be,
And I shall be resolved in vast eternity.” *

The influence of the ocean on the character of those who

frequent its paths, is alluded to in the following lines :—

“Haw, glorious Ocean! in thy calm repose
Majestic like a king. The emerald isles

Sleep on thy breast, as tho’ with matron care

Thou in a robe of light didst cradle them,

Hushing the gales that might disturb their rest.

Those chasten’d waves that in rotation throng

To kiss their chain of sand, methinks they seem

Like pensive teachers, or like eloquent types

Of the brief tenure of terrestrial joy.

Tho’, roused to sudden anger, thou dost change

Thy countenance, and arm’d with terror, toss

Man’s floating castles to the fiery skies ;

* Miss M. A. Browne.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER,

bo
~I

Yet still thou art his friend. Thy magic spell
Looseneth the tie of kindred, lures his feet

From earth’s green pastures to the slippery shrouds,
Weans his bold spirit from the parent hearth,

Till by the rough and perilous baptism bronzed,

Thou art his priest, his home.”*

Amongst the subjects of meditation which may occupy
our minds at. such times, the following interesting remarks
of that great Christian philosopher, Arnold, may well find a
place.

In the Appendix to his edition of Thucydides he thus
speaks of the utility of the sea.

“ The boundless and unmanageable mass of earth presented
by the continents of Asia and Africa, has caused those parts
of the world, which started the earliest in the race of civili-
zation, to remain almost at the point from whence they set
out; while Europe and America, penetrated by so many seas,
and communicated with by so many rivers, have been
subdued to the uses of civilization, and have ministered
with an ever-growing power to their children’s greatness.
Well indeed might the policy of the old priest-nobles of
Egypt and India, endeavour to divert their people from
becoming familiar with the sea, and represent the occupation
of a seaman as incompatible with the purity of the highest
castes. * * * he sea deserved to be hated by the old
aristocracies, inasmuch as it has been the mightiest instru-
ment in the civilization of mankind. In the depth of winter,
when the sky is covered with clouds, and the land presents

one cold, blank, and lifeless surface of snow, how refreshing

* Sigourney.

28 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

is it to the spirit, to walk upon the shore, and to enjoy the
eternal freshness and liveliness of the ocean! Even so in the
deepest winter of the human race, when the earth was but
one chilling expanse of inactivity, life was stirring in the
waters. There began that spirit whose genial influence has
now reached to the land, has broken the chains of winter,
and covered the face of the earth with beauty.”

Sentiments worthy of him whose whole soul was centred
in the moral and religious progress of his species.

The enthusiastic attachment of a Greek to the element
which washes his native shores, is touchingly embodied in
Mrs. Hemans’ beautiful little song of a Greek Islander in

exile.

“WHERE is the Sea ?—I languish here—
Where is my own blue sea,
With all its barks in fleet career,
Its flags and breezes free ?
I miss that voice of waves which first
Awoke my childhood’s glee ;
The measured chime, the thundering burst—

Where is my own blue sea?

“Qh! rich your myrtle’s breath may rise,
Soft, soft your wind may be,
But my sick soul within me dies—
Where is my own blue sea?
I hear the shepherd’s mountain flute,
I hear the whispering tree ;
The echoes of my soul are mute—

Where is my own blue sea ?”

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER, 29

Those lines “'The measured chime, the thundering burst,”
often recur to us as vividly descriptive. ‘“ The harmonious
chime” of the waves, is again mentioned in the following

sweet lines of the poet of “The Christian Year :”—

*“ WHEN up some woodland dale we catch
The many twinkling smile of Ocean,
Or with pleased ear bewilder’d. watch
His chime of restless motion ;
Still as the surging waves retire,
They seem to gasp with strong desire ;
Such signs of love old Ocean gives,

We cannot choose but think he lives.”

The pious and gifted Mary Jane Graham has expressions
somewhat similar, in a beautiful passage in her “ Letters to
a young Piano-Forte Player.”

“Who can sit by the sea-side when every wave lies
hushed in adoration, or falls upon the shore in subdued and
awful cadence, without drinking in unutterable thoughts of
the majesty of God? The loud hosannas of ocean in the
storm, and the praises of God on the whirlwind, awaken us
to the same lesson ; and every peal of thunder is an hallelujah
to the Lord of Hosts. Oh! there is a harmony in nature!
The voice of every creature tells us of the glory of God!”

Cold indeed must be the heart, which, looking on “this
great and wide sea also, wherein are things creeping innu-
merable, both small and great beasts; where go the ships,
and where is that leviathan which he hath made to play

therein,” withholds from the infinitely wise and good God

30 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

the glory of his works, and refrains to ery out, “O Lord,
how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made

them all!”

“Wuat ebbs, flows, swells and sinks, who firm doth keep?
Whilst floods from th’ earth burst in abundance out,

As she her brood did wash, or for them weepe :

Who (having life), what dead things prove, dare doubt ?
Who first did found the dungeons of the deepe,

But one in all, ere all, above, about ?

The flouds for our delight first calme were set,

But storme and roare since men did God forget.

“ Who parts the swelling spouts that sift the raine ?
Who reines the winds, the waters doth empale ?

Who frownes in stormes, then smiles in calmes againe,
And dothe dispense the treasures of the haile ?

Whose bow doth bended in the clouds remaine ?

Whose darts (dread thunderbolts) make men look pale ?
Even thus these things to show his power aspire,

As shadows doe the sunne,—as smoke doth fire.

“God visible, invisible who raignes,

Soule of all soules, whose light each light directs,
All first did freely make, and still maintaines ;
The greatest rules, the meanest not neglects ;
Fore-knowes the end of all that he ordaines,

His will each cause, each cause breeds fit effects ;
Who did make all, all thus could onely leade,

None could make all, but who was never made.”*

* Alexander, Earl of Stirling, 1600.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 31

There is in this poem a beautiful intimation of one aspect
of the sea,—that of terror, which may be the one chiefly
intended in the Scripture, when it is promised as an ingre-
dient in heavenly happiness, that there shall be “no more
sea.” It has been said, he who has never seen a storm at
sea, has never learned to pray. Happy they who in such an
hour can feel with Richard Howitt—

“Upon the ocean God is near—
The wing of the most High,
In calm and storm, a gracious form
Broods over sea and sky.
His love is breathed in every wind,
His voice in every wave ;
His life, his light, in the stormy night

Of ocean’s billowy grave.

‘** His bow of promise we behold,

As gorgeously array’d

As when, amid a world destroy’d,
Twas first to man display’d.

His gentlest creatures, dove-like birds,
Rest on our wandering barque ;

They seek our vessel, as the dove
The life-preserving ark.

“The banner of his love, the sun,
Shines on us day by day ;
His presence nightly in the moon
Illumes our watery way.

32 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

We cannot go where God is not
In goodness ever nigh ;
Thus when we sleep upon the deep,

We move before his eye.”

Other thoughts will also be suggested in such hours,

perhaps such as the following.*

“ Hz who has laid him down at close of day,
Within some goodly ship that o’er the waves
Of ocean makes her solitary way,

And from his pillow hears the tide that laves
Incessantly the vessel’s side, may tell

How slight betwixt him and the billows’ swell
Appears the timber barrier, that rejects

The beating surge, and from its might protects.

* There is another ocean :—’tis around
The soul’s frail bark that floats upon the tide.
But vainly do we listen :—not a sound
Comes from the depths profound as on we glide ;
By day, by night, for ever all is still,
As the fair moon above the lonely hill;
The viewless angels silent pass us by,

Nor stir the ocean of eternity.

“What marvels else would wake us! Oh! how slight
All that divides from wondrous things would seem !
How frailer than the plank which in the night

Is wash’d by ocean where the seamen dream !

* From “Songs of the Parsonage.”

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. oe

Yea, than the shell circling the tender bird
Where all around with vernal life is stirr’d.
Fear passing thought might thrill us, and amaze,

Lest the vast world conceal’d should burst upon our gaze.

“Yet it will burst ere long :—a scene untold
And unconceived, will open on our view.
These slender frames will fail us—and behold,
The God that form’d them; with a retinue
Of holy seraphim, and holy men,
In form resplendent as the Saviour, when
Upon the mount, from out the o’ershadowing cloud,

“ This is my Son beloved,” a voice proclaim’d aloud !

There is a line in Barry Cornwall’s well-known song of

¥ ”
“The Sea,”—
* And silence wheresoe’er I go,’’

. . al
which one is at a loss to understand. It may, however,
receive some illustration from the following remark made
by Mr. Monk Mason, in his narrative of his wronautic trip

in the year 1836 :—

“The sea, unless perhaps under circumstances of the most
extraordinary agitation, does not in itself appear to be the
parent of the slightest sound: unopposed by any material
obstacle, an awful stillness seems to reign over its motions.”
Yet the sounds of the sea have been often celebrated—never
perhaps more beautifully, than in the following exquisite
lines, from Taylor’s “ Edwin the Fair:”"—Leolf is pacing the

sea-shore near his castle at Hastings:—

84 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

* Here again I stand;
Again, and on the solitary shore
Old ocean plays as on an instrument,
Making that ancient music when not known ?
That ancient music, only not so old
As He, who parted ocean from dry land,

And saw that it was good.”

They are dwelt upon also in the second stanza of the follow-

ing poem by Brainard :-—

“'THERE’s beauty in the deep :-—
The wave is bluer than the sky ;
And though the light shines bright on high,
More softly do the sea-gems glow,
That sparkle in the depths below.
The rainbow’s tints are only made
When on the waters they are laid,
And sun and moon most sweetly shine
Upon the ocean’s level brine.

There’s beauty in the deep.

There’s music in the deep:—
It is not in the surf’s rough roar,
Nor in the whispering shelly shore ;
They are but earthly sounds, that tell
How little of the sea-nymph’s shell,
That sends its loud clear note abroad,
Or winds its softness through the flood,
Echoes through groves with corals gay,
And dies on spongy banks away.

There’s music in the deep.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER, 35

There’s quiet in the deep :—
Above let tides and tempests rave,
And earthborn whirlwinds wake the wave ;
Above let care and fear contend
With sin and sorrow to the end:
Here, far beneath the tainted foam,
That frets above our peaceful home,
We dream in joy, and wake in love,
Nor know the rage that yells above.

There’s quiet in the deep.”

The sounds of the sea—those murmurs so much “welcomer,”
as Campbell thinks, than the murmurs of the world—have a
powerful influence over the mind; an influence indeed varied
in kind, and alternating with different states of feeling—

different states also of the ocean itself.

“THe tones of the majestic sea
Have meanings too sublime for me,
When billows lift their voice on high,
And clouds are thundering their reply.
I love to hear its soften’d tones,
Its hush’d complaints, its under moans,
When waves subsiding, sink to rest—

And sunbeams sleep upon its breast.””*

“The works of man inherit, as ’tis just,
Their maker’s frailty, and return to dust ;”’

But in the works of God, even the works which relate to this
changing and material world, destined one day to be “as a

vesture to be folded up,” there is yet a character of permanence,

* (M.S,) Ellen Roberts.

36 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

a faint reflection of the changeless glories of their Maker.
As Lord Byron beautifully says, in a passage already quoted,

ee5

“Time writes no wrinkle on thy azure brow,” nor does “‘it

take a tone from its majestic voice.”

“ Tuou art sounding on, thou mighty sea,
For ever; and the same
The ancient rocks yet_ring to thee,

Whose thunder nought can tame.

“Oh! many a glorious voice is gone
From the rich bowers of earth,
And hush’d is many a lovely tone
Of mournfulness or mirth.
The Dorian flute that sigh’d of yore
Along that wave is still;
The harp of Judah peals no more

On Zion’s awful hill.

** And Memnon’s lyre hath lost the chord

That breathed the mystic tone;

And the songs at Rome’s high triumphs pour’d
Are with her eagles flown;

And mute the Moorish horn, that rang
O’er stream and mountain free ;

And the hymn the leagued crusaders sang,
Hath died in Galilee.

“ But thou art swelling on, thou deep,
Through many an olden clime
Thy billowy anthem, ne’er to sleep

Until the close of time.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 37
Thou liftest up thy solemn voice,
To eyery wind and sky,
And all our earth’s green shores rejoice |

In that one harmony.

“Tt fills the noontide’s calm profound, |

The sunset’s heaven of gold ;

And the still midnight hears the sound,
Ev’n.as when first it roll’d.

Let there be silence, deep and strange,
Where sceptred cities rose !

Thou speak’st of one who doth not change—

So may our hearts repose.”*

Campbell has called the ocean “beatific sea.” Pollok has

bestowed upon it epithets even more expressive of admiration:

“ Great Ocean! strongest of creation’s sons,
Unconquerable, unreposed, untired,
That roll’d the wild, profound, eternal bass
In nature’s anthem, and made music such
As pleased the ear of God! Original,
Unmarr’d, unfaded work of Deity,
And unburlesqued by mortal’s puny skill,
From age to age enduring and unchanged,
Majestical, inimitable, vast;
Loud uttering satire, day and night, on each
Succeeding race, and little pompous work
Of Man! Unfallen, religious, holy sea,
Thou bow'd’st thy glorious head to none,

Heard’st none, to none didst honour but to God.

* Mrs. Hemans.

38 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

Thy Maker only worthy to receive
Thy great obeisance! Undiscover’d sea,

Into thy dark unknown mysterious caves,

And secret haunts, unfathomable deep,
Beneath all visible retired, none went,

And came again to tell the wonders there.” *

We may perhaps fitly close our collection of “sea pieces,”
with the following lines, which, irregular as they are, con-
tain a thought we would wish to leave with our readers,

and tell of a blessing we earnestly desire they may share.

“ WERE it not joy, upon the wild waves straying,
Careless and fearless, still to float at ease ?

Now with their angry crests, storm-whiten’'d, playing;
Now sweetly slumbering on the sunny seas;

Now with like grace, their graceful swell obeying,
Like some gay creature of the element,

Never thy course, thy might, thy danger weighing,

But in their arms reposing, well content ;
No thought, no wish, thyself thy way to measure,

But trusting all to them, in calm deep trance of pleasure.

“Were it not joy—the joy of conflict glorious !—

Still to do battle with the raging tide,

Tasking thy strength, but evermore victorious,
Undaunted by the billows of its pride ;
Breasting them boldly, all their terrors braving,

Conscious of pow’r, increasing still as tried—

* Pollok’s “Course of Time.”

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

For them no jot of thy firm purpose waiving,
But pressing on thro’ all—and steady-eyed,
Far off, but clear, thy noble mark descrying,

In faith and hope to strive, their utmost force defying—

“ Yea, both are joys—high joys, and spirit-thrilling !—
To thee but vain fond fancies do they seem?

Yet both are thine, if only thou art willing !

’Tis thine to battle with the world’s rough stream,
Dauntless in heavenly might thy task fulfilling.—

’Tis thine, serene as infant in his dream,

How toss’d soe’er upon those waters chilling,

Sublime to float, nor aught of danger deem !—

Blest he, whose soul securely still reposes

In Love’s eternal Ark, till life’s wild voyage closes! "*

* (M.S.) A. J. Vidal.

SHEA-WEED

PART 1.

Oh! call us not weeds, but flowers of the sea,

For lovely, and gay, and bright-tinted are we !
Our blush is as deep as the rose of thy bowers,—
Then call us not weeds, we are Ocean’s gay flowers.

Not nursed like the plants of the summer parterre,
Whose gales are but sighs of an evening air,

Our exquisite, fragile and delicate forms,

Are the prey of the Ocean, when yex’d with his storms.

SEA-WEEDS. |

“THE least proclaims, and loudly too, |

The forming finger of a God.”

Tar our readers may become better acquainted with some
of the more interesting and beautiful of these “ Ocean
Flowers,” the following pages will be devoted to real

specimens of the plants, with such information as may be

acceptable to the general reader; but no attempt at a scientific
arrangement will be made, the intention of the work being |
rather to awaken in the mind a desire to know more of

beautiful objects capable of teaching so much.

“ How sweet to muse upon the skill display’d,
Infinite skill, in all that he has made!
To see, in nature’s most minute design,

The signature and stamp of power Divine.”
Cowrer.

44 OCEAN FLOWERS

We will commence with a short description of the general
character of sea-weeds; further information will be dis-
covered in succeeding pages, interspersed with such poetry

and reflections as harmonize with the subject.

ALG# is a name assigned by botanists to a large group or
natural class of Cryptogamiz, or flowerless plants, which
form the principal or characteristic vegetation of the waters.
The sea in no climate, from the poles to the equator, is
altogether free from them, though they abound on some
shores much more than on others.

Thus extensively scattered through all climates, and
existing under so many varieties of situation, the species
are, as one would naturally suppose, exceedingly numerous;
and present a greater variety in form and size, than is
observable in any other tribe of plants whose structure
is so similar. Some are so exceedingly minute, as to be
wholly invisible (except in masses) to the naked eye, and
require the highest powers of our microscopes to ascertain
their form or structure. Others, growing in the depths of
the great Pacific Ocean, have stems which exceed in length
the trunks of the tallest forest-trees, and others have leaves
that rival in expansion those of the palm. Some are simple

globules or spheres, consisting of a single cellule, or little bag

of tissue filled with a colouring matter; some are mere strings

of such cellules cohering by the ends; others, a little more

AND THEIR TEACHINGS. 45

perfect, exhibit the appearance of branched threads; in others
again the branches and stems are compound, consisting of
several such threads joined together; and in others the
tissue expands into broad flat fronds.
Hon. W. H. Harvey’s “Manvat or THE BritisH ALGR.”

Arter having been kept dry for a great length of time, they
will revive by immersion in water ; but only that portion of
the plant which is immersed imbibes ‘the fluid. The seeds,
or sporules, consist of minute granules, internal, clustered, or
scattered, or imbedded in tubercles or peculiar . processes
arising from the frond. Often two or three different kinds,
or rather forms, of fructification exist in the same species; but
each apparently in itself is capable of becoming a new plant.
There is nothing that can be compared to the stamens in
phenogamous plants. Low as this order of plants is in the
scale of vegetable beings, it is yet the one which approaches
the nearest to certain animals. Indeed, the ablest naturalists
have been unable to draw the line of distinction between the

least perfect of these, and the less highly organized of animals.

Sir W. Hooker’s “Britisu Fora.’

OCEAN FLOWERS

SERRATED FUCUS.,

Turs contains far less salt than the Bladdered Fucus,

and is consequently much less estemed for kelp. In Norway

it is the food of cattle, sprinkled with a little meal, according
to Gunner. The Dutch cover their crabs and lobsters with
it, and say that it is preferable to the Bladdered Fucus be-
cause the mucus from the vesicles of the latter, ferments and

soon becomes putrid.
Sir W. Hooker.

Tus Fucus is employed as manure, and with much benefit,
though its value endures but for a single season. It is found
peculiarly well adapted to potatoe culture; and when spread
on the ground in winter, yields an abundant crop of the very
best hay. But if its application be deferred till the time of
planting, the former produce, though equally abundant, is
watery, ill-tasted and unfit for the table, though it answers
well enough for seed. This remark equally applies to all the
Alge, which, under the general name of cart-wracks, are

rolled ashore by the gales.
Captain CARMICHAEL.

In ancient times, when a person wished to express utter

contempt of a thing, seemingly unfit for any purpose, he

AID THEIR TEACHINGS, 47

would say, “as worthless as sea-weed.” (Alga projecta
vilior.) Before we presume to join in this very harsh opinion,
we ought to descend to the bottom of the ocean, and wander
through the groves and meadows of the submarine world,
to watch the habits, food, and growth of the countless in-
habitants of the dee; and then perhaps we might form a
conclusion more in a@cordance with the great truth, that the
all-wise Creator has made nothing in vain. But this being
impossible, we mustrest content with merely inferring from
analogy, that the depths of the sea may possibly produce
weeds to be the foot of marine animals, as the face of the
earth brings forth gieen herbs to be the food of land animals.
But the Roman poe, who uses the expression given above,
alluded probably to ‘he uselessness of these alge to man.
Yonder countrymen, with their mules and panniers, are
seemingly of a very different opinion. ‘They have been at
the pains of cutting a winding path along the face of the
rocky cliff, solely fo: the purpose of carrying off the great
heaps of sea-weed, ‘ast on shore whenever a storm occurs.
You will ask of couse, “To what use do they apply it after
they have devoted sc much time and trouble to its removal?”
It is deposited in laige heaps on the arable lands, where it
is suffered to remain until decomposition has taken place, and
at the proper seasoi is spread on the ground, and forms a

valuable manure.
C. A. Jonns’ “BoranrcaL RAMBLES.”

OCEAN FLOWERS

BLADDERED FUCUS.,

Tuts seaweed is abundantly employed in the manufacture
of kelp, if it be not the very best for that purpose. But this,

important as it is in a commercial point of view, is not the
only end it serves. In the isles of Jura and Skye it is
frequently a winter food for cattle, which regularly come
down to the shores at the receding of the tide, to seek for
it ; and sometimes even the deer have been known to descend
from the mountains to the seaside and feed upon this plant.

Linneus informs us that the inhabitants of Gothland in
Sweden, boil this Fucus with water, and mixing with it a
little coarse meal, or flour, feed their hogs upon it; for
which reason, they call the plant Swintang: and in Scania
he says, the poor people cover their cottages with it, and use
it for fuel. In Jura, and some other Hebrides, the inhabit-
ants dry their cheeses without salt, by covering them with
the ashes of this plant; which abounds so much in that
substance, that from five ounces of the ashes, may be
procured two ounces and a-half of fixed alkaline salts, or half
their own weight.

Str W. Hooker.

ANOTHER and yet more important application of this
“worthless alga,” is to the manufacture of kelp, a substance
extensively used in glass-making and soap-boiling. Kelp is

an impure carbonate of soda, and is procured from the ashes

AND THEIR TEACHINGS. 49

of various kinds of sea-weed. “The plants are cut from the
rocks, or collected from the rejectamenta of the sea, and
dried in the open air. An excavation, like a grave, is made
in the ground, and lined with large stones; and in this,
which is named a kelp-kiln, the dried weeds are burned.
The melted alkali, mixed with many impurities, accumulates
in the bottom of the kiln; and when cold, forms a hard,
bluish mass, which is named kelp, and is a substance of
great importance in bleaching, and, as before stated, in the
manufacture of soap and glass.

Almost the entire rent of the island of Rathlin, on the
northern coast of Ireland, is thus paid from the produce of
its seaweeds; and from this source alone, the rents of one
Highland chief have, of late years, it is said, increased two

thousand pounds per annum.

C. A. Jouns’ BorantcaL RAMBLEs.

SEAWEEDS expand with amazing rapidity. Mr. Ste-
phenson, the Scottish engineer, found that a rock, uncovered
only at spring-tides, which had been chiselled smooth in
November, was thickly clothed on the following May with
fucoids from two to six feet in length, notwithstanding the
winter had been unusually severe. Many species, as the dis-
jointed alge, have a fissiparous reproduction; that is, separate
into numerous fragments, each of which, though having a
common origin, has an individual life, and is capable in

turn of increasing its kind.

CuamsBers’ EpinsuRGH JOURNAL.

OCEAN FLOWERS

PALMATED RHODOMENIA, OR DULSE.

Tus plant grows from four to six inches or a foot high,
and is of a livid purplish color. This is the Saccarine Fucus,
or Sol of the Icelanders, the efflorescence of which has a
sweetish and not disagreeable taste. It is dried by the
natives, packed down in casks, and used as occasion re-
quires, frequently cooked with butter.

Sir W. Hooker.

Catuep by Highlanders, duillisg (leaf of the water).—The
Scotch and Irish wash the plant in fresh water, dry it in the
sun, rollit up, and chew it like tobacco; but it is usually eaten
fresh from the sea. ‘The Icelanders, after drying it, pack it
down in casks for occasional consumption; and it is then
ready to be eaten, either raw with fish and butter, or boiled
with milk, to which is sometimes added a little rye-flour. In
Norway it is called sow-séll, or sheep’s weed, sheep being
exceedingly fond of it. It is used medicinally in fevers, in
the Isle of Skye; and in the islands of the Archipelago, is a
favourite ingredient in ragouts, to which it imparts a red
color. The dried frond, like many other marine alge, when
infused in water, exhales an odour resembling that of violets,
and is said to communicate that flavour to vegetables with
which it is mixed.

LirttE Marine Borantst.

SEAWEED is driven in here in considerable quantities; and at
the spring tides, at the full moon and change, a few women
may be seen, scattered over the rocks, collecting a particular
species called Dillisk or Dulse (Rhodomenia palmata), which
they dry in the sun, and then carry about the country and
sell to the peasantry, who eat it as a delicacy.

M. M. (White Park, Antrim.)

TTA

ision I

RHODOMES

ne signifies “ red’

Abundant m all the ro

INARTICULATA

PALMATA—PALMATED RHODOMENIA

Tribe 9. Fronwre

"and “a membrane.”

cky shores of Great Britain

AND THEIR TEACHINGS. dl

Tuts species, with another (Orkneys Red-ware, Laminaria
digitata), was, until recently, so much esteemed by our
northern countrymen, that it was publicly sold in the cities,
as an article of regular consumption. The cry of “Buy
dulse and tangles,” resounded at no very distant period, even
through the streets of Edinburgh.

Many of the alge are rather extensively used as food;
and though, to one unused to such diet, they would in gene-
ral seem to offer little temptation to the appetite, the poorer
natives, not only of our own, but of other shores, eat them
with much relish. Let us not despise their taste, though
differing from our own; but rather adore the beneficence of
God, who has supplied in much abundance, an additional
source of nutriment, and has conferred upon the recipients of

his bounty, the taste requisite for its enjoyment.
Tue OcEAN.

Deer in the wave is a coral-grove,

Where the purple mullet and gold-fish rove ;
Where the sea-flower spreads its leaves of blue,
That never are wet with falling dew,

But in bright and changeful beauty shine,

Far down in the deep and glassy brine.

The floor is of sand like the mountain drift,
And the pearl-shells spangle the flinty snow ;
From coral-rocks the sea-plants lift

Their boughs, where the tides and billows flow ;
The water is calm and still below,

For the winds and waves are absent there ;
And the sands are bright as the stars that glow
In the motionless fields of upper air ;

There with its waving blade of green,

The sea-flag streams through the silent water ;
And the crimson leaf of the dulse is seen

To blush, like a banner bathed in slaughter.

J. G. Percivat.

OCEAN FLOWERS

CURLED CHONDRUS.

Tus is called the Proteus of marine alge, the varieties
being innumerable, and passing so insensibly one into the
other that it is almost impossible to define them. When
fully ripe, the capsules fall away, leaving the frond full of
holes. It is used in Ireland, as size, by house-painters.

Marine Boranist.

THERE is a substance which has been lately introduced as
an article of commerce, intended as a substitute for Iceland
Moss, and sold by the London druggists by the name of
Carrageen Moss; notwithstanding its name, however, it is a
true alga, Chondrus crispus. It is an exceedingly variable
species; but its most usual form is that of a flat leaf spreading
somewhat triangularly, or rather so as to give to its outline
the figure of one fourth of a circle; the edge is branched into
numerous flat segments, overlapping one another. When
viewed under water, in a growing state, it gives out beautiful
prismatic hues. Containing a large quantity of gelatine, it
has been successfully applied, instead of isinglass, in the
making of blanemange and jellies. A fucus, probably
allied to this, found at the Cape of Good Hope, is boiled into
a jelly, and being mixed with sugar and the juice of lemons

or oranges, makes a very agreeable dish.
Tur OcEAN.

CHONDRUS CRISPUS—CURLED CHONDRUS
Fr

ivision I, Inarricutata, Trit

RIDER

Name signifies “ cartilage :"’ from the cartilaginous substance of the frond

.bundant on rocky shores.

AND THEIR TEACHINGS. 53

Tuere is another genus, called Gelidium (from the frond
being easily reduced to a jelly), much used by the inhabitants
of many countries bordering the Indian Ocean, to render
more palatable their hot and biting condiments; and from
some undetermined species the celebrated edible swallow’s
nests are constructed.

Three species of swallows form edible nests; two of which
building at a distance from the sea-coast, use the sea-weed
only as a cement for other materials; the nests of the third
species, are consequently most esteemed, and are sold for

nearly their weight in gold.
MarinE Boranisv.

THERE with a slight and easy motion,

The fan-coral sweeps thro’ the clear deep sea ;
And the yellow and scarlet tufts of ocean

Are bending like corn on the upland lea :

And life, in rare and beautiful forms,

Is sporting amid those bowers of stone;

And is safe, when the wrathful spirit of storms
Has made the top of the waves his own.

And when the ship from his fury flies,

Where the myriad voices of ocean roar,

When the wind-god frowns in the murky skies,
And demons are waiting the wreck on shore;
There far below in the peaceful sea,

The purple mullet and gold-fish rove;

Where the waters murmur tranquilly,
Through the bending twigs of the coral-grove.

J. G, PERcIVAL.

|
| F || 54 OCEAN FLOWERS

LACINIATED PURPLE-LAVER.

Tus, under the name of Laver, is much eaten in many
ik I places, especially the south of England, pickled with salt,
i and preserved in jars, and when brought to table, served up
with lemon-juice. According to Lightfoot, the inhabitants
! of the Western Isles gather it in the month of March, and
\ after pounding and macerating it with a little water, eat it
with pepper, vinegar, and butter. Others stew it with leeks,

|
1 | and ‘onions.
| Sir W. Hooker.

Tue Purple Laver is called Stoke in Scotland. All the
plants of this genus form beautiful specimens for the herba-
rium; and when carefully dried, the surface is delightfully

| smooth and glossy.
\ Lirtte Marine Boranist.

ResPectineé the reproduction of Algw, it is evident that the
ql modes of flowering and fruiting which we perceive in land
plants, would have been wholly inappropriate. Not exposed
| to sunshine, there was no use for reflecting petals; continually
q submersed in water, a sheltering calyx would have been super-
fluous; and seeds, in the ordinary structure of that organ,
could not have endured. Nature, however, is never in lack

| . * *
of means to an end; and the vegetation of the ocean is pro-
i! pagated with as unerring certainty and with as great rapidity

as the most prolific family on land. For this purpose, certain
| species have their surface studded with blistery expansions,
i | or part of their substance is filled with little cells, which
expansions and cells contain many minute germs, floating in

|
|
|
|
|
|

PORPHYRA LACINIATA—LACINIATED PURPLE-

LAVER.
Division I. Inarricurara, Tribe 11 Utvachs
Name signifies “ purple ;” in allusion to the color of the fronds

In the sea, on rocks, stones, alge and wood, abundant

AND THEIR TEACHINGS. 55

mucilaginous matter. As these germs arrive at maturity,
the enclosing pustules burst open, and the germs are con-
signed to the ocean, where they float about coated with their
glutenous mucilage, and are sure to adhere to the first surface
upon which they impinge. In a few weeks they spring up
into new plants, and in their turn give birth to thousands,
Thus we have seen half-a-dozen different weeds attached
to the same oyster-shell; and a pebble of twenty pounds’
weight, buoyed up by one plant of bladder-wrack, the
primary germ of which had glued itself to the surface.

CHAMBERS’ EpINBURGH JOURNAL.

THOUGHTS ON THE SEA-SHORE

“Tn every object here, I see

Something, O Lord, that leads to thee;—
Firm as the rocks thy promise stands;
Thy mercies countless as the sands;

Thy love a sea immensely wide;

Thy grace an ever-flowing tide.

In every object here, I see

Something, my heart, that points at thee ;—
Hard as the rocks that bound the strand ;
Unfruitful as the barren sand ;

Deep and deceitful as the ocean ;

And, like the tides, in constant motion.

J. Newron.—* Otney Hymns.”

On the sea-shore, when day’s last purple smile
Slept on the waters, and their hollow swell
And dying cadence lent a deeper spell
Unto thine ocean pictures.
Mrs. Hermans.

56 OCEAN FLOWERS

RIBBAND GREEN-LAVER.

Tus spedes is very similar to Ulva Latissima, and Ulva Lac-
tuca, both eaten under the name of Green Laver or Oyster
Green; bdng served at table with lemon-juice, in the same way
as PurpleLaver. Lightfoot says, that the islanders ascribe
to it an modyne virtue, and bind it about the forehead and
temples to assuage headache in fevers, and to procure sleep.
The Ribland Green-Laver delights to grow in those gravelly
spots, where the fresh water oozes up during the ebb-tide.
In such dtuations it is not uncommon to find specimens four
feet in laagth, with a diameter not exceeding two inches.

Sin W. Hooker.

Tw ther distributions the alge obey laws equally impera-
tive as those which regulate the habitats of land vegetation.
Thus the bladder-wrack luxuriates most where alternately
exposed and covered by the tide; the dulse, on the very
confines of the lowest ebb ; and the tangle and sea-catgut
in a zore where the lowest ebb never reaches. We
know litle of the bottom of the ocean over extensive
spaces; tut this we are warranted in affirming, that sea-
weeds flourish most abundantly on rocky patches of moderate
depth, tht they never spring from sandy or muddy sites,
and that they are altogether unknown in the greater depths
of the sa. Many of them seem to float about quite un-

attached; and though these may have been torn from some

ULVA LINZA—RIBBAND GREEN LAVER

Di on I. Inarricutats#. Tribe 11. Untvacem

Theis, from “ul,” water, in Celtic; applied to some iquatic

Rocks and stones in the

AND THEIR TEACHINGS.

on
~l

rocky shore, yet continually in water, they absorb their
proper nutriment, and increase in size almost as much as
their fixed congeners. Being less subject to fluctuations of
temperature, the alge are more regular in their growth than
land plants; and with the exception of a few within the tidal
influence, the majority seem to experience no cessation of
growth or propagation. It must be borne in mind also,
that the alge are inhabitants of fresh as well as salt-water,
and that some of the most curious and beautiful genera are
found in our streams and pools, or spread in the form of the
most delicate slime on stones and gravel. Nay, what is
more wonderful still, some, like the Ulva Thermatis, flourish
even in hot springs, at a temperature not less than 117 degrees

of Farenheit!
Cuamspers’ Epinsuren JouRNAL.

I LoveD to walk where none had walk’d before,
About the rocks that ran along the shore;

Or far beyond the sight of men to stray,

And take my pleasure when I lost my way.
For then *twas mine to trace the hilly heath,
And all the mossy moor that lies beneath.
Here had I favorite stations, where I stood,
And heard the murmurs of the ocean-flood,
With not a sound beside, except when flew
Aloft the lapwing, or the grey curlew,

Who with wild notes my fancied power defied,
And mock’d the dreams of solitary pride.

I loved to stop at every creek and bay

Made by the river in its winding way ;

And call to memory—not by marks they bare,

But by the thoughts that were created there.
CRABBE.

OCEAN FLOWERS

OAK-LEAVED DELESSERIA.
Pernars the most lovely of all the Fuci is the Delesseria

Oak-leaved Delesseria. It consists of several

Sanguinea
oblong-oval or pointed leaves of extreme delicacy, with the
edges very much waved or plaited, furnished with a mid-rib
and side veins, which materially increase their leaf-like appear-
ance ; the color is an exceedingly rich rose-color. The mid-
rib often throws out smaller leaves, which, if the main frond
be destroyed, soon attain its usual size; an interesting
provision against the accidents to which these apparently
frail plants are necessarily exposed. The fructification of
this genus is curious, as being of a twofold character: both
forms are found in the winter, affixed to the midrib, which
alone survives that season, the foliaceous part having all
decayed away. The one mode is by means of nearly globular
capsules, attached to the rib by short foot-stalks, and enclosing
many irregularly shaped seeds; the other is by small membra-
naceous leaf-like processes, likewise containing seeds. These
two kinds of fructification occur on distinct individuals.
This charming fucus, of which no adequate idea can be
formed by a verbal description, retains much of its beauty
when dried, and is very easily preserved. It is a pity that
I am obliged to confess, that its odour is very unpleasant,

being rank and pungent.

Tue Ocean.

DELESSERIA

Named in honor

DELESS!I

Division I, InaRtTrouLaTa.

Sea sh

f M. Benjamin Delessert, a distinguished patron of

SANGUINEA—OAK-LEAVED

BRIA.

Tribe 9, Frortpre

yequent. White Park, Antrim

AND THEIR TEACHINGS. 59

TO THE OAK-LEAVED DELESSERIA

“Trt me, thou child of ocean,
With thy ensanguined fronds,
Nursed by the wave’s commotion,
And fixed by rooted bonds:

Why is such beauty lavish’d
In caves of ocean dark,

From human vision banish’d,
Such texture fair to mark ?

Say, do the sea-nymphs find thee,
Thy roseate leaves unfold,

And round their tresses bind thee,
As oaken wreaths of old?

Like roses here on earth
Do they thy beauty prize,
As flowers of heavenly birth,
Emblems of brighter skies?

Short-sighted mortal, shame thee!
Dost think that beauty gleams
Where man alone must see it,
Or where he useful deems ?

No brilliant hues are needed
To deck the sea-nymphs’ hair,
But beauty springs unheeded
Throughout creation fair.

Our God in love abounding
Has thus his mind display’d;
With beauty all surrounding

The creatures he has made.
J. Mackness, M.D. (Hastings.)

OCEAN FLOWERS

WINGED DELESSERIA.

Tus plant, like most of the specimens in this book,
requires the aid of a lens, to discover half its beauties. It
has perceptible veins, the fronds are transparent, and vary
in color from a deep rose-red to a bright pink; and in decay
it is beautifully variegated with palest pink and white.

A CLOSE examination of a small extent of sea-shore, where
sea-weed is plentiful, will prove to you that the “great deep”
abounds in vegetables as various in forms and color as in
size; and the microscope will reveal to you wonders as great
as the land can afford. Simple thread-like tubes, jointed
filaments, the particles of which cohere by inconceivably
minute points, tangled tufts consisting of countless feathery
stems, exquisitely veined leaves, all abounding with fructi-
fication as various as the plants themselves, wave to and fro,
in the little pools left among the rocks by the receding tide.

And as to color, you can scarcely name a tint which is not
here to be met with, as brilliant and delicate as in the opening
rose, or the full-blown cactus. Time will not serve me to
particularize them; and indeed I should find it very difficult
to describe the minute kinds in such a way as to enable you
to fix on the species which I had in view: but a cursory
glance will be sufficient to teach you the same lesson which
throughout all our rambles it has been my principal object to
inculeate: —that the meanest work in the creation is well
worthy of our deepest research and admiration, not merely
because it may lead to some useful discovery, but because the

ISSERIA ALATA—WINGED DELESSERIA

Upo

Scotland.

n rocks in the Sea, and larger algee, frequent.

AND THEIR TEACHINGS. 61

actual inquiry, while it compels us to engage in exercise
healthful to the body, is equally beneficial to the mind,
making us wiser, better, and happier.

Cc. A. Jouns’ Boranicat RAMBLES.

As in form, so in size, sea-weeds vary exceedingly; pre-
senting fibres, the delicacy of which requires the aid of the
microscope to examine, floating leaves to which those of the
fan-palm are mere pigmies, or tangling cables extending
from three to four hundred feet in length.

“The Macrocystis Pyrifera,” says Darwin, in speaking of
Terra del Fuego, “grows on every rock from low-water mark
to a great depth, both on the outer coast, and within the
channels. I believe that, during the voyages of the Adven-
turer and Beagle, not one rock near the surface was discovered
which was not buoyed by this floating weed. The good service
it thus affords to vessels navigating near this stormy land is
evident; and it has certainly saved many from being wrecked.

“I know few things more surprising than to see this plant
growing and flourishing amidst those great breakers of the
western ocean, which no mass of rock, let it be ever so hard,
can long resist. The stem is round, slimy, and smooth, and
seldom has a diameter of so much as one inch. A few taken
together are sufficiently strong to support the weight of the
large loose stones; and yet some of these stones were so heavy,
that when drawn to the surface, they could seareely be lifted
into a boat by one person. I do not suppose the stem of any
other plant attains so great a length as 360 feet, as stated by
Captain Cook. Captain Fitzroy, moreover, found it growing
up from the greater depth of forty-five fathoms!”

CuamBers’ EprnsurGH JOURNAL.

62 OCEAN FLOWERS

PODDED HALIDRYS: OR, TREE IN THE SEA.

Tus beautiful and graceful plant is thrown upon the sands
in great abundance during the summer months ; when young
and fresh, it is of a bright olive-green, but it soon becomes

black when exposed to the sun and air.

Lirrie Martine Boranist.

Tuoven the extensive natural order of Alga is reckoned
among the lowest of vegetable creation, we shall find that it
is scarcely exceeded by any in the form, and color, and tex-
ture of its species; so that no cryptogamic plants have been
more general objects of admiration and research ; and if their
value is to be estimated by the service mankind derives from
them, they will hold a high rank in the stale. From the
marine alew, Iodine, a new principle, and possessed of very
remarkable properties, is derived.* It has been successfully
employed in the cure of goitres, a disease which Dr. Gillies
informs us had yielded, in South America, to the application
of the stem of a certain fucus, long bere iodine was
employed in civilized Europe.

Sir W. Hooker.

* Todine is procured principally from Fucus Nodosus.

wea
vi

HALIDE

PODDED

SILIQUOSA

7c
vt 5S

HALID!

AND THEIR TEACHINGS. 63

Toprne derives its name from a Greek word signifying a
violet, from the peculiar hue of the vapour which it emits
when heated. Polished plates of silver held over these fumes
are peculiarly sensitive of light, and are used in taking like-
nesses by the process called Daguerreotype.

C. A. Jonns’ “Borantcan RAMBLEs.”

THE sea-wort floating on the waves, or rolled up high along
the shore,

Ye counted useless and vile, heaping on it names of contempt,

Yet hath it gloriously triumphed, and man been humbled in
his ignorance ;

For health is in the freshness of its savour, and it cumbereth
the beach with wealth ;

Comforting the tossings of pain with its violet-tinctured
essence,

And, by its humbler ashes, enriching many proud.

Be this, then, a lesson to thy soul, that thou reckon nothing
worthless,

Because thou heedest not its use, nor knowest the virtues
thereof,

And herein, as thou walkest by the sea, shall weeds be a type
and an earnest

Of the stored and uncounted riches lying hid in all creatures

of God !

M. F. Turrer’s “PROVERBIAL PHILOsoPHyY.”

64 OCEAN FLOWERS

FIBROUS CYSTOSEIRA.

Tue vesicles of this fine species are three or four times
wider than the part in which they appear, and about the size
of a vetch-seed, with a bushy and somewhat harsh appearance
of frond.

Dr. GREVILLE.

Onty the higher tribes of sea-weeds show any distinction
into stems and leaves ; and even in these, what appears a stem
in the old plant, has already served, at an earlier period of
growth, either as a leaf, as in Cystoseira, &c., or the midrib
of aleaf, as in Delesseria. A few exhibit leaves or flat fronds,
formed of a delicate perforated net-work resembling fine lace,
or the skeletons of leaves, a structure which is also found
among Zoophytes.

Hon. W. H. Hakvey,

Tuosr who have resided inland all their lives, where only
shallow rivers flow, where clear fountains rise, or muddy
currents roll along, view with deep admiration the first
appearance of the sea, as they regard from the shore the pure
and sparkling green complexion of its waters—a color which

seems indeed peculiar to itself. Admiration is changed to

SYSTOSEIRA

FIBROSA—FIBROUS

YSTOSEIRA

(

Focorpr#

uthern Coasts

AND THEIR TEACHINGS. 65

wonder when we find, on placing a portion of that water into
a vessel, no trace of that peculiar color is to be seen; it is
now perfectly clear and colourless. Marine plants, especially
the corallines, beam in the sea with the greatest splendour ;
but, as soon as they are taken out, much of their beauty
vanishes. Certain Cystoseire (or Iridex), which in their
fostering element shine in the colors of the rainbow, or in the
finest tints of orange and purple, lose their attractions by
exposure to the atmospheric air. When on a cloudless day
we enjoy an excursion on its surface, the waves appear
colored in such a manner around us, we are inclined to
believe, as we admire the deepness of its green, that we are
upon a liquid meadow ; as the vessel becomes distant from the
shore, and we reach the high latitudes, the green tint changes
into a blue tint ; and in the open sea the water becomes (at
50 or 60 fathoms) of the finest azure color. But this blue,
which is ordinarily regarded as one of the characteristics of
the ocean, and which is commonly attributed to the manner
in which the rays of the sun become decomposed, as they
penetrate into the waters, is not, however, exclusively pecu-
liar to it ; every large and deep bed of water has a cast of a
similar nature.*

Cou. Bory pE St. VINCENT.

* It is generally supposed that this green appearance of the sea in
shallow water is owing to the weeds growing on the bottom. The deep
blue tint “ out of soundings” seems to arise from some peculiarity in the

constitution of the fluid itself in respect to its action on light. Perhaps
the similarity of color between the sky-deep above, and the ocean-deep
below, may indicate some analogy of constitution between the waters of

the one and the ether of the other.

ASV.

OCEAN FLOWERS.

LACINIATED RHODOMENIA

Tuts beautiful species of Rhodomenia is common on many
parts of the coasts of Great Britain. It varies much in
appearance, the segments being often fringed with marginal
lacinie, but more frequently quite plain. The smaller and
more delicate specimens have much resemblance to Rhodo-

menia bifida.

Tue following pleasing description of the romantic shore
whence these deautiful specimens of the plants were obtained,
adds yet greaier interest to this page :—

“The hills of White Park are thickly covered with bent ;
and among them are scattered large masses of grey rocks,
almost overgrown with the bright green glossy-leaved ivy,
and bearing a strong resemblance to the ruins of castellated
buildings ; these add greatly to the romantic beauty of the
scene. In fiont roll the foam-crested waves of the broad
Atlantic, sounding in solemn music on the shore, and bearing
on their storny bosoms these ‘flowers of the deep,’ which

bear testimony to the truth of the poet’s words :

‘Far in the sunless retreats of the ocean,

Fair flowers are springing no mortal may see.’

RHODOM

TIA LACINIATA. LACI}
RHODOMENIA.

LATED

|
|
|
|

Division 1 InarrrounaT#, Tribe 9, Froripra

From the shores of White Park, Antrira, Ireland,

AND THEIR TEACHINGS. 67

“To the lover of solitary meditative rambles, a more
attractive spot than this lovely strand could scarcely be dis-
covered ; the sand is hard and firm beneath the foot, and the
long unbroken line—unbroken save by the foaming breakers
as they

‘Roar, and dash, and sink, and cease to be,’

forms a most agreeable noontide walk. When the broad sun
is pouring his fiery rays oti the languid earth, here all is fresh
and cool; and the mind, alike unoppressed by the fever of

society, or the weight of excessive stillness, can ask itself
with Brainard,

‘Deep calleth unto deep; and what are we
That hear the question of that voice sublime ?
O! what are all the notes that ever rung
From war’s vain trumpet, by thy thund’ring side !
Yea, what is all the riot man can make
In his short life, to thy unceasing roar !
And yet, bold babbler!— what art thou, to Him,
Who drown’d a world, and heap’d the waters far
Above its loftiest mountains ?—a light wave,
That breaks, and whispers of its Maker’s might.’ ”’

(M.S.) Margaret. (Knockmore.)

From the sea are exhaled those vapours which form the
clouds; these clouds descend in showers, which penetrating
into the crevices of the hills, supply springs; which springs
flow in little streams into the valleys, and there uniting,
become rivers; which rivers in return feed the ocean. So
there is an incessant circulation of the same fluid; and not
one drop probably, more or less now, than there was at the
creation. A particle of water takes its departure from the
surface of the sea, in order to fulfil certain important offices
to the earth; and having executed the service which was
assigned to it, returns to the bosom which it left.

Patey’s “Naturat Puinosopxy.”

OCEAN FLOWERS

IEE Pe

THE PINASTER-LIKE RHODOMELA.

Tus sea-weed is covered during the winter months with

shortly stalked yellow bodies, probably of an animal nature.

i || As to the direct uses of the alge in the general economy
of nature.—On land, it is only necessary to glance around us,
to perceive that the animal kingdom could not exist without
the vegetable. Beasts of the forest, and fowls of the air, and
countless myriads of the insect tribe—man himself—all
depend, more or less, on vegetables for their food and cloth-
ing. The sea, too, has its hordes at least as numerous as
those of the land, to which the alge afford food and shelter,

1 and on whose existence, contemptible as many of them seem,

depends, in a greater or less degree, the preservation of every
scale of life in the sea. Many of these little animals are so

minute, that at first sight it would seem a matter of very little

consequence to ws (for when we speak of “uses,” the words
“to man” are too generally to be understood) whether they
should starve or not. But when it is remembered that the
principal food of the whale consists of a minute jelly-fish,
which is scarcely more than an animal sack, moving by con-
traction; and that by far the greater part of the fishes impor-
tant as articles of food to man depend upon minute marine
animals for support; a different estimate will be formed of the
| importance of the lower links in the chain of creation to the

whole, and we shall come to the conclusion that there is such

ASTER

AND THEIR TEACHINGS. 69

a mutual dependance between one living creature and another,
that none but the All-wise can dare to determine whether one,
the most minute, can be spared without endangering the
destruction of all. The alge, therefore, by supporting the
base, support the structure.

Hon. W. H. Harvey.

“flow wondrous is the scene ! where all is form’d
With number, weight, and measure !—all design’d
For some great end!—where not alone the plant
Of stately growth, the herb of glorious hue,

Or food-full substance; not the laboring steed;
The herd and flock that feed us; not the mine,
That yields us stores for elegance and use ;

The sea that loads our table, and conveys

The wanderer man from clime to clime ; with all

Those rolling spheres, that from on high, shed down

Their kindly influence ;—not these alone,

Which strike e’en eyes incurious, but each moss,
Each shell, each crawling insect, holds a rank
Important in the plan of Him, who framed

This scale of beings; holds a rank, which lost,
Would break the chain, and leave behind a gap
Which Nature’s self would rue. Almighty Being!
Cause and support of all things! can I view
These objects of my wonder; can I feel

These fine sensations, and not think of Thee?
Thou who dost through th’ eternal round of time,
Dost through the immensity of space exist
Alone, shalt Thou alone excluded be

From this Thy universe ?—shall feeble man
Think it beneath his proud philosophy

To call for thy assistance, and pretend

To frame a world, who cannot frame a clod?

BENJAMIN STILLINGFLEET.

OCEAN FLOWERS

PINNATIFID LAURENCIA.

‘Tuts is a beautiful, but very variable plant, growing from
one to many inches in length. It is a summer weed, and
often dries a dark green, or nearly black; in pressing it exudes
a bright yellow fluid. .

This plant is eaten in Scotland, where it is called Pepper

Dulse, on account of its pungent flavor.

Amone algw, the classes of color are, to a great extent,
indicative of structure, and consequently of natural affinity.
Thus the green species are of the simplest structure, and
differ remarkably in their mode of propagation from either
of the other tribes, their seeds being endowed at the period
of germination with a sort of metion which some have called
voluntary, but which does not really possess that animal
property. The olivaceous are the most perfect and compound,
and reach the largest size; and the red form a group distin-
guished not less by the beauty and delicacy of their tissue,
than by producing seeds under two forms, thus possessing
what is called a double fructification.

But the young student must be careful not to place too
absolute dependance on this character, in referring plants
which he may gather to their place in the system ; for some
species which in their healthy state are red, or of that class
of color, become, when growing under unfavourable circum-
stances, of an orange-yellowish, whitish, or greenish shade.

Laurencia Pinnatifida is particularly variable in this respect.

| AND THEIR TEACHINGS. 71

When this species grows near low-water mark, it is of a
fine deep purple red; a little higher up, it is dull purple
brown ; higher still, a pale brownish red, and, at last, near
high-water mark, it is often yellowish or greenish. |
| The other species of Laurencia vary in similar, but less | |
striking degrees. Chondrus Crispus too, when found in

|
ts ,
shallow water, is often of a bright herbaceous green; and
| |

Ceramium Rubrum passes through every shade of red and |

y . ; 4 . i . |
yellow, and at last degenerates into a dirty white, before it
ceases to grow.

Hon. W. H. Harvey.

| On children of ocean, how strange is your growing!
How strange in mine eyes is the place of your birth!
No breezes to fan you are tenderly blowing,

No soft dews ye share with your kindred of earth.
But while far above you the tempest is sweeping,
The billows are rolling, all crested and white,

Those fathomless depths, that have you in their keeping,

Untroubled abide, and are séill in their might !

The seasons may change—but for you come no changes ;

Nor fading of autumn, nor spring-bloom ye know.

Time dwells in mid-air;—his light wing never ranges

| The sky-deep above, or the sea-deep below.

| (M.S.) <A. J. Vipar. |

OCEAN FLOWERS

SCARLET PLOCAMIUM.

Tus is one of the most charming and symmetrical alge
in the world; extremely common every where, and an
universal favorite. Although liable to vary very considerably
in size, and in the proportion of its parts, a single glance at
the beautifully regular and peculiar division of the ultimate
branches is at all times sufficient to distinguish it. Some
specimens are not above an inch in length, with the frond
almost as fine as a hair; while others, from New Holland,
are a line in width, and above a foot long; but the admirable

character above mentioned is universally preserved.

LittLe Marine Botanist.

Some of those species whose fronds are very delicately
and numerously ramified, have been used to form mimic
pictures. By skilful arrangement, very pretty landscapes
are thus made, the forms and foliage of trees being beauti-
fully imitated. The kinds most commonly appropriated for
this purpose are, Plocamium Coccineum and Gelidium
Cartilagineum, which have a very beautiful effect if simply
expanded on smooth white paper, or on the pearly inner
surface of large shells. The whole order Floridex, to which
these belong, is remarkable for brilliant hues and often

elegant forms.
(P. H. Gossz.) Tue Ocran.

AMII

PLOC

i fronds

ranche

AND THEIR TEACHINGS. 3)

THE ATLANTIC OCHAN

Come down, come down, from the tall ship’s side;
What a marvellous sight is here !

Look! purple rocks, and crimson trees,
Down in the deep so clear.

See ! where those shoals of dolphins go,
A glad and glorious band ;

Sporting amidst the day-bright woods
Of a coral fairy land.

See ! on the violet sands beneath,
How the gorgeous shells do glide !

O sea! old sea! who yet knows half
Of thy;wonders and thy pride ?

Look how the sea-plants trembling float
All like a mermaid’s locks,

Waving in thread, of ruby red,
Over those nether rocks.

Heaving and sinking, soft and fair,
Here hyacinth—there green,—
With many a stem of golden growth,

And starry flowers between.

But away! away! to upper day !
For monstrous shapes are here:

fonsters of dark and wallowing bulk,
And horny eyeballs drear :

* * ¥ *

Away ! away ! to upper day ;
To glance o’er the breezy brine,
And see the nautilus gladly sail,
The flying-fish leap and shine.
Mary Howirr.

OCEAN FLOWERS

TOOTHED ODONTHALTA.

Tus very beautiful seaweed is frequently found on old
stems of Laminariw.. The urceolate capsules on the frond
(which is one species of fructification) appear very curious,
when viewed with the microscope.

In color the alge present three principal varieties, with,
of course, numerous intermediate shades; namely, grass-green,
olivaceous, red. The grass-green is characteristic of those
found in fresh water, or in very shallow parts of the sea,
along the shores, and generally above half-tide level, and is
rarely seen in those which grow at any greatdepth. But to
this rule there are exceptions sufficiently numerous, to forbid
our assigning the prevalence of this color altogether to
shallowness of water. Several of the more perfect Conferve
and Siphonez grow beyond the reach of ordinary tides; and
others, as the beautiful Anadyomene, are sometimes dredged
from very considerable depths. The great mass, however, of
the green-colored species are inconsiderably submerged.
The olivaceous brown, or olive-green, is almost entirely
confined to marine species; and is in the main, characteristic
of those that grow at half-tide level, becoming less frequent
towards low-water mark; but it frequently occurs also at
greater depths, in which case it is very dark, and passes into
brown, or almost black. The red also is almost exclusively
marine, and reaches its maximum in deep water. When it
occurs above half-tide level, it assumes either purple, or
orange, or yellow tints, and sometimes even a cast of green;
but in these cases it is sometimes brightened, by placing the
specimens for a short time in fresh water.

Hon. W. H. Harvey.

AND THEIR TEACHINGS. 75
| Tue pearl
Shines in the concave of its purple bed, | }

4 And painted shells along some winding shore

Catch with indented folds the glancing sun.
AKENSIDE.

Peruars no scene or situation is so intensely gratifying
| to the naturalist, as the shore of the ocean. The productions
of the latter element are innumerable, and the majesty of the
mighty waters lends an interest unknown to an inland
landscape. The loneliness, too, of the sea-shore is much
cheered by the constant changes arising from the ebb and
flow of the tide, and the undulations of the water’s surface,
sometimes rolling like mountains, and again, scarcely mur-
muring on the beach. As you gather there, |

* Bach flower of the rock, and each gem of the billow;”’

you may feel with the poet, that there are joys in solitude,
and that there are pleasures to be found in the investigation
of nature, of the most powerful and pleasing influence.

“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods;
There is a rapture on the lonely shore;
There is society where none intrudes, | }
By the deep sea, and music in its roar. 7

| But nothing can be more beautiful than a view of the
bottom of the ocean, during a calm, even round our own
shores, but particularly in tropical climates, especially when
it consists alternately of beds of sand and masses of rock.
The water is frequently so clear and undisturbed, that at |
great depths, the minutest objects are visible; groves of
coral are seen expanding their variously coloured clumps,
some rigid and immoveable, and others waving gracefully

their fiexile branches.
Drummonp’s “First Sters’ To Botany.” i

>
E |
|

OCEAN FLOWERS

FEATHERED PTILOTA.

Tuts is one of the most beautiful of the marine alge. A
jointed appearance is visible in the young and tender parts

of this plant.

Like their kindred, the plants of the earth and air, the
seaweeds have their parasites. As the Tillandsia grows on
the giants of the tropical forests, and as the misseltoe grows
upon the apple-tree of our own orchards, so do some of these
draw their nourishment, or at least derive their support,
from the fronds or stalks of others. Ptilota Plumosa, for
example, a delicately feathered species, of a pink or purplish
hue, is found to be parasitical on the common tangle. It is
justly considered one of the ornaments of our southern
shores, but becomes still finer as we approach a more

northern latitude.
Tue OcEAN.

LINES ON THE FEATHERED PTILOTA; ADDRESSED TO——.

I rounp, while I wander’d alone on the strand,
By the cliff that o’erhangs the dark sea,

A flower of the ocean embedded in sand ;
And the thoughts it awoke, were of thee.

I saw it removed from the parent that nurst
Tts frail leaves as it oped to the deep ;

And I thought of the sorrow, the deepest, the first
That had taught thy young eye-lids to weep.

I saw it uprooted and torn by the storm,
From its kindred and home ’neath the wave ;
And I felt it might envy the earth’s meanest worm
That could make of its cradle a grave.

PTILOTA PLUMOSA—FEATHERED PTILOTA
Division 1. Inarricurat#, Tribe9. FLrormEr2.

ed, from the extremely beautiful pinnated appearance of the

Scotland

AND THEIR TEACHINGS.

I thought of thee leaving the home of thy love,
And the friends that rejoiced in thy smile,

To be toss’d on the waves of the world, but to prove
How its fairy-wrought visions beguile.

And now ’mid the calm it was borne to its rest,
Ere the evening-tide murmurs had come ;—

Thou too, by the burthen and day-heat opprest,
Hast welcomed the rest of the tomb.

And far from the rocks where thy footsteps have stray’d,
Where the friends of thy youth for thee weep ;

On the shores of the stranger thy grave thou hast made,
And there gentle ones watch o’er thy sleep.

Meet emblem, again see it raised from the sand,
No sea-storm to feel or to fear;—

Thy spirit unfetter’d has soar’d to a land
Where thy joy is undimm’d by a tear.

(M.S.) Isasetna. (Knockmore.)

A REFLECTION AT SEA

Srp how beneath the moon-beams’ smile,
Yon little billow heaves its breast,

And foams and sparkles for a while,
And murmuring then subsides to rest.

Thus man, the sport of bliss and care,
Rises on time’s eventful sea ;

And having swell’d a moment there,
Thus melts into eternity !

T. Moore.

=F
2)

OCEAN FLOWERS

RED CERAMIUM.

Tus elegant, jointed plant should be examined through
a lens, to discover the beauty of its formation ;—it is very

variable in its ramification and coloring.

ToucH possessing no floral attractions, the alge are
often very beautiful in their forms and colors, as may be
seen by studying any preserved collection. They branch,
radiate, and interlace like the most delicate network; float
in long silken tresses, or spread along the rocky bottom, in
forms that surpass the most intricate tracery of human
invention. Nor are their colors often less attractive ; for
though the prevailing hue be a sober chocolate, there are
patches of the brightest green, yellow and vermilion, not
surpassed by the grandest shells that lurk below. It is true
that

“'The rainbow hues of the sea-tree’s bloom,”

is a mere fanciful absurdity, only fit to be classed with the
“coral bowers,” and “sparkling caves,” of the versifier ; yet
the reader has only to pick up a few of the mosses drifted by
the latest tide, and to float them in pure water, to be convinced
that both in form and color many of the alge would lose
nothing by a comparison with the gayest products of the

flower-garden.
CuamBeErs’ JOURNAL.

<j t
ms

ion to the for

AND THEIR TEACHINGS.

Tis pleasant to wander along on the sand

Beneath the high cliff that is hollow’d in caves ;

When the fisher has put off his boat from the land,

¥ And the prawn-catcher wades thro’ the shore-rippling waves.

While fast run before us the sandling and plover,
Intent on the crabs and the sand-eels to feed ; i
And here on a rock which the tide will soon cover,

We'll find us a seat that is tapestried with weeds. | i

Bright gleam the white sails in the slant rays of even,

And stud as with silver the broad level main,

| While glowing clouds float on the fair face of heaven, |

| And the mirror-like water reflects them again. j
|

How various the shades of marine vegetation,

Thrown here, the rough flints and the pebbles among,—
The feather’d conferva of deepest carnation,

The dark purple slake, and the olive sea-thong.

Ah! whether as now the mild summer sea flowing,
Scarce wrinkles the sands as it murmurs on shore ;

Or fierce wintry whirlwinds impetuously blowing,
sid high maddening surges resistlessly roar ;

| That power which can put the wide waters in motion,
Then bid the vast billows repose at his word,
Fills the mind with deep rev’rence, while earth, air, and ocean,

Alike of the universe speak Him the Lord.
Mrs. C. Suir.

OCEAN FLOWERS

ENTANGLED GIGARTINA.
Tuts is a remarkably entangled, wiry species, resembling
horsehair: the branches vary much in length.

Were the algx not really serviceable either in supplying
the wants, or administering to the comforts of mankind in
any other respect, their character would be redeemed by
their usefulness in the arts; and it is highly probable that we
shall find ourselves eventually infinitely more indebted to
them. One species—the Gigartina Tenex—is invaluable to
the Chinese as a glue and varnish. ‘Though a small plant,
the quantity annually imported at Canton, is stated by Mr.
Turner to be about 27,000 pounds. It is sold at Canton for
sixpence or eightpence a pound, and is used for the purposes
to which we apply gum-arabic, or glue. The Chinese
employ it chiefly in the manufacture of lanterns, to
strengthen or varnish the paper, and sometimes to thicken or
give gloss to silks or gauze. They also employ it as a
substitute for glass, smearing with it the interstices of bam-
boo work, which, when dry, presents lozenge-shaped spaces

of transparent gluten.
CusmpBers’ EptnBURGH JOURNAL.

Wuaat is life ?—'tis a delicate shell
Thrown up by eternity’s flow,

On time’s bank of quicksand to dwell,
And a moment its loveliness show.
Gone back to its element grand,

To the billow that brought it on shore,
See, another is washing the land,

And the beautiful shell is no more !
Monrcomery.

AND THEIR TEACHINGS.

A SEASIDE COMPARIS

Tue mist hangs grey and pale
Over th’ horizon’s sea-swept verge,
Shrouding its distance in an awful veil;
While every tiny surge,
O’er shining pebbles rolling bright,
Breaks at our feet in clearest light ;
And the blue heavens, outspread above us,
Smile, like the cloudless eyes of those who love us.

Like Life! Oh, how like Life!

So dim, so hid, its onward way,

With unknown pleasures, pains, and perils rife,
While every fresh To-day

In open view before us shows

Its duties, trials, joys, and woes,

And far, but in unveil’d expansion,

Faith’s upward eye beholds her heavenly mansion.

(M.S.) A. J. VipAt.

A pEw-prop falling on the wild sea-wave,
Exclaim’d in fear, “I perish in this grave ;
But in a shell received, that drop of dew
Unto a pearl of marvellous beauty grew ;
And happy now, the grace did magnify,
Which thrust it forth—as it had fear’d, to die.
Until again, “I perish quite,” it said,

Torn by rude diver from its ocean bed ;

O unbelieving !—so it came to gleam

Chief jewel in a monarch’s diadem.

(Translated from the Persian by R, C. Frencu.)

OCEAN FLOWERS

FASTIGIATED POLYSIPHONTA.

Tus plant is a parasite upon Fucus Nodosus, and is by
some called Black-tufted Conferva. It should be examined
| with the microscope to see its distinctive character. It is
| very pretty when shaken out, and dried with the fucus

without pressure.
il Spna-WEED COLLECTOR.

Most alga are at some period of their growth found |
attached to other substances by means of a root, or at least a
hold-fast. Some species, which under ordinary circumstances
i} are attached by roots, occasionally dispense with them, and
continue to flourish independently of them. Of these the most
remarkable are Sargassum Bacciferum and Vulgare, which,
under the Spanish name Sargasso, or the English “Gulf-
Weed,” have forced themselves on the notice of all voyagers
who have crossed the Atlantic since the time of Columbus. |
The vast fields of sea-weed which were met by the adventurous
Genoese and his early followers, which made the ocean
appear like a meadow, and sensibly impeded the course of
their small vessels, consisted of these species.
Hon. W. H. Haryey.

“ON THE SOLDIERS OF ZENOP

RIVED IN SIGHT OF THE SBA.”

Tuovu mighty ocean, though with ceaseless course,
Thousands of years in turn have roll’d away,
Since the Almighty with his word of force,
Form'd thy vast bulk, no symptom of decay

Tells that this morn is not thy natal day.—

Such as thou wast, when first at God’s command,
Thy gather’d depths in endless volume lay,

aman

iis:

AND THEIR TEACHINGS. 83

Such art thou now, and round each wave-beat strand,
Thou gird’st the changing shore with an eternal band.

Deserts have sprung where towering cities stood—
What track of earth may long the same remain ?
But changeless ever rolls the dark blue flood ;
No track ‘of ruin, and no age-worn stain,

Mark time’s rude path across the watery plain,
That boundless ‘‘image of eternity.”

Tyrants may claim earth through its wide domain ;
But Ocean’s stores to all alike are free,

And all alike may share the riches of the sea.

Earth yields to man her ever-teeming breast,
And owns herself subjected to his will ;
But who can tame the billows’ foaming crest,

When, lash’d by stormy gusts, they threaten ill

To the proud fabrics of man’s vaunted skill ?

Though once from human voice the waves have heard,
Amid their maddening fury, “Peace, be still ;’—

The troubled waters knew their sovereign Lord,

And bow’d in awe their wrath, obedient to his word.

Years have roll’d by, and Athens reigns no more ;
The brightness of her splendour long has set :
But ‘mid the ruins of her ancient power,

The memory of her glories lingers yet ;

Her fallen sons relate with fond regret,

Their country’s fame of old for deeds like this ;
And tell when “oft j in grateful evening met, |
Where up the shore the blue waves steal to kiss,

Of the proud fight their fathers fought at rugged Salamis.

Not they alone, while gazing on the sea, |

Find pleasure in the memory of the past ;

A mightier nation has its destiny,

Like ancient Athens, on the waters cast.

But O, my country! may thy glories last,

Till time itself is sinking to decay ;

Still may thy navies, borne before the blast,

Sweep o’er the ocean in resistless way,
|

Till every distant land owns England’s righteous sway.

Grorce GILBERT. (Bury School.)

;
|
:
i
:

84 OCEAN FLOWERS

DARK POLYSIPHONIA.

Tus plant may be readily distinguished from other
species, by its bushy habit, and woody stems, rough with

broken branches.
Sir W. Hooker.

AG”, like land plants, reach maturity in different spaces
of time, and endure for different periods. Many of the

smaller and more delicate are annual; others, of the her-

baceous kind, seem to be biennial, or, at least, frequently
perish at the end of the second season; and many continue

for several years, particularly those of a woody texture.

LittLE Marine Boranist.

Wuen the heat of mid-day is past, and the refreshing sea-
breeze invigorates the exhausted frame, it is delightful to
wander along the beach, and observe the various objects
there, which are full of interest. The sea-shore is indeed
the last place in which a true lover of nature can be idle.
Such a number of beings, varying in form and character, in
habits and manners, and in the design of their existence,
here surround him, as may often employ his time and
attention. Yet how many annually visit the sea, some for
the sake of health, some for amusement and pleasure, who
leave it without having examined a single one of the natural

POLYSIPHONIA NIGRESCENS—DARK POLYSIPHONIA

On marine rocks, common. 6)

AND THEIR TEACHINGS. 85

productions with which it teams—an investigation which

would have made many an uneasy hour, one of gratification

and instruction.

“SIGHTS IN ALL SEASONS.”

THERE was not, on that day, a speck, to stain
The azure heavens ; the blessed sun alone,
-In unapproachable divinity,

Career’d, rejoicing in his fields of light.
How beautiful beneath the bright blue sky,
The billows heave !—one glowing green expanse,
Save where along the bending line of shore
Such hue is thrown, as when the peacock’s neck
Assumes its proudest tint of amethyst,
Embathed in emerald glory. All the flocks

Of ocean are abroad: like floating foam,

The sea-gulls rise and fall upon the waves ;
With long protruded necks, the cormorants
Wing their far flight aloft, and round and round
The plovers wheel, and give their note of joy.
Tt was a day that sent into the heart

A summer feeling: even the insect swarms
From their dark nooks and coverts issued forth,
To sport through one day of existence more ;
The solitary primrose on the bank,

Seem’d now as though it had no cause to mourn
Its bleak autumnal birth; the rocks and shores,
The forest and the everlasting hills,

Smiled in that joyful sunshine,—they partook

The universal blessing.

SOUTHEY.

OCEAN FLOWERS

RED PHYLLOPHORA.

A REMARKABLY beautiful plant when young. Its forma-
tion is peculiar to itself, and excepting when in a state of
decay, will seldom be mistaken. It may then be confounded
with Nitophyllum Laceratum; but a careful examination of
its characteristics, being proliferous from the midrib, as well
as a much firmer and more compact plant, will readily
distinguish it. It is perennial; and when young, the color is
a beautiful transparent rose-pink, turning to green or a
yellow brown in decay.

SEA-WEED COLLECTOR.

WALK TO THE SEA

Tue flowers upon the mountain’s side
Like lonely spirits dwell,

Where beauty finds a place to hide

In many a secret cell.

And now the wild variety
Of sea-weeds on the shore,
And shells of glorious ancestry,

Old Ocean’s beauteous floor.

There came in these a healing sense,
To thoughts of my despair ;
A living and felt evidence

Of sweet protecting care.

PHYLLOPHORA RUBENS—RED PHYLLOPHORA

Division I. Inarricutare. Tribe 9, Frormra-

Name signifies “a leaf,’ and “ to bear;” from the proliferous nature of the frond.

On the rocky coast of England, frequent

AND THEIR TEACHINGS,

If thus his presence stands confest
In shell, and flower, and stone,
To Him each want within my breast,

And every pain is known.

And now I feel me strong again
To join your living songs ;
All animate, thou vocal main,

With never-resting tongues.

And ye that stand in gloom profound,
Like sentries of the strand,
Ye everlasting hills around,

A bold fraternal band ;

And she that from her silver boat
Leans o’er the summer sea,
The moon, takes up the glorious note

In quiet majesty.

The moon, the mountains, and the sea,
Are in thy sheltering hand ;
But they are all no more to Thee

Than pebbles on the strand.

And though a sea of voices rise

Throughout the boundless

Thou hearest the inexpressed cries

Of one as mean as I.

By rue Avruor or “THe CATHEDRAL.”

OCEAN FLOWERS

REEN ROCK CONFERVA.

Tus seaweed is very common, and but little noticed by

tion.

persons generally ;—but it is deserving of a careful examina-

It is found in large tufts; and by some, 1s called

Mermaid’s Train.

E’rn through winter’s barren hours,
Ocean’s
Summer suns may pass away,

carden has its flowers ;

Still they smile and look as gay.

Fadeless through the changing year,
Not a leaf among them sere.
Ev’ry form and hue display’d,

Varied as the “rainbow braid.”

On the dry and sterile rocks,
See, Conferva hangs her locks ;
There she waves her tresses fair

Soft as infant’s silken hair;

Now in tufts of silv’ry green,
Floating on the tide serene;

Small sea-insects in its bow’r
Sporting as in summer hour.

In the ocean’s vast domain,
Nothing has been made in vain;—
Goodness, care, and love divine,
Through the whole creation shine.

(M.S.) Exnuen Rogerts.

Name

SFERVOIDER
‘ conferruminare
y the ancients, 1

On marine rocks

STRIS—GREEN ROCK CONFERVA

Tribe 16. Conrerver

consolidate ; some of the specie:

the healing of fractured limbs

y common.

AND THEIR TEACHINGS. 89

M. Lamourovx has discovered that the groups of alge, or
marine plants, affect particular temperatures, or zones of
latitude, though some few genera prevail throughout the

ocean. The Polar Atlantic Ocean, to the 40th degree of

north latitude, presents a well-defined vegetation. The | } |
West-Indian seas, including the Gulf of Mexico, the eastern )
coast of South America, the Indian Ocean and its gulfs, the |
shores of New Holland, and the neighbouring islands,

have each their distinct species. The Mediterranean pos -

sesses a vegetation peculiar to itself, extending to the Black
Sea; and the species of marine plants on the coast of Syria |
and in the port of Alexandria, differ almost entirely from
those of Suez and the Red Sea, notwithstanding the proximity

of their geographical situation.

Tt appears that in the dark and tranquil caves of the

ocean, on the shores alternately covered and deserted by the
| restless waves, on the lofty mountain and extended plain, in
the chilly regions of the north, and in the genial warmth of
the south, specific diversity is a general law of the vegetable
kingdom, which cannot be accounted for by diversity of ib
| climate; and yet the similarity, though not identity of |
species, is such, under the same isothermal lines, that, if the
number of species belonging to one of the great families of

plants be known in any part of the globe, the whole number

of the phanerogamous, or more perfect plants, and also the
number of species composing the other vegetable families,

may be estimated with considerable accuracy.

Mrs. SOMERVILLE.

OCEAN FLOWERS

ACULEATED DESMARESTIA.

Ir is hardly possible to conceive a more beautiful object
than this plant, waving its young and delicate feathered
branches in the water. When thus gathered, however, it
possesses, in common with the following genus, the singular
property of changing to a verdigris green, and decomposing

most other alge placed near it.

Littte MARINE BotvanistT.

In the youngplant the branches are soft and flaccid, and
furnished along their whole length with tufts of light green
conferva-like filaments, which drop off as soon as it has com-
pleted its growth. Old plants are rigid, destitute of these
fibres, and the branches set with awl-shaped spines or
ramuli; but whenever they shoot out new branches, these are
constantly clothed with the green fibres, which seem to be
an indispensable accompaniment to the process of growth,
and perhaps perform the functions of leaves.

Hon. W. H. Harvey.

THR A ULEATED DESMARE S1

My birthplace is the ocean rocks,
My fragile form the deep sea laves ;
The tempest’s wild assaults it mocks,
And flourishes amidst the waves.

When young, fine tufts of grassy hue
My slender stems surround ;

And beauteous, ’midst the wat’ry blue,

Those feathery whorls abound.

French natur

alist

tufts of hairs, which

ants

bh and rigid

spines

AND THEIR TEACHINGS.

Lash’d by the waves, toss’d by the storm
7 ? d ’
My nature stubborn grows ;
I lose at length my softer form,
As hate from harshness flows.

The filaments of gossamer,
In angry mood I shed,

And clothe my lengthen’d branches o’er
With stubborn thorns instead.

They shadow forth an emblem fit,
To picture man’s short life ;
Tracing the changes as they flit
2 ;
Across his sea of strife.

An infant first in simple guise,
All innocence and joy ;
J9)
Love beaming from its laughing eyes,
Pure as the azure sky.

But mark the man with troubled brow,
Changed from the joyous child ;
Dark angry passions vex him now,
By wrong and fraud beguiled.

The plants to youth no more return,
Their grassy tufts are shed ;

Those coarser stalks we now discern,
Proclaim its glory fled.

A happier lot on man attends ;
For him bright hopes remain ;

In peace with God oft passion ends,
And youth revives again.

J. Macxness, M.D., Hasrines.

92 OCEAN FLOWERS

1 FEATHERED B
|

| Tuis graceful plant, of a delicate green color, is liable to
|
| much variation in size and ramification. The Bryopsis is one
HH of the most beautiful genera of the Marine Flora, and so per-
1 |

i fectly natural, that it is most difficult to define the species.

Tue tribe of which the Bryopsis Plumosa is a member, is
remarkable for its delicacy: in the one now mentioned, the
main stem is very slender, set with horizontally-spreading
branches, like a pine-tree, each of which is most elegantly
feathered. Its color is a bright grass-green, and the whole

surface shines as if it were varnished. It is so delicate,

that in drying, the coloring matter contracts in the stem,
leaving interrupted spaces destitute of color, and perfectly
transparent.

THE OcEAN.

THESE are but a very few of the multitudinous sea-weeds,

which would come under the notice of an observant visitor
to our own rocky shores; yet how manifold are the indi-
cations of infinite intelligence and goodness, even in these |
|

things, proverbial for their vileness ; and, while we gratefully

AND THEIR TEACHINGS. 93

acknowledge the Divine hand in such species as conduce to
man’s sustenance or comfort, may we not, from the lavish
beauty and elegance of such as are of no direct benefit to
us, legitimately draw the same consolatory inference which
the Saviour drew from the lovely lilies at his fees? If
God so clothe these obscure caverns and submerged rocks,
will He not much more care for those whom he has redeemed
with the blood, and conformed to the image of His Son?
Nor is the relation which He sustains to these frail and
perishing weeds limited to an exertion of creative power.
All are marshalled in order, each is provided incessantly
with the requisite supplies for its welfare, and each is
assigned to that particular locality which suits its habit of
growth, and where alone it flourishes.

THe Ocran.

Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
d So ey
The dark, unfathom’d caves of ocean bear.

GRAY.

AND senseless indeed must he be, who, after adding to his
store of happiness by looking into the things of God’s
creation, fails to discover that the knowledge and love of
God, his own and their Creator, should be to him the source
and spring of all his happiness. Can it be that fallen man
should feel his mind expand in the peaceful enjoyment of
dissecting the puny herbs which Nature scatters every

where in his way, and not rejoice in his moments of reflec-

FLOWERS.

OCEAN
H tion, that the God of Nature has revealed hinself also as
the God of Peace? If, by searching into the lews by which

He governs the universe, the mind attain a quiet and calm
f ’ 1

} enjoyment, as unmixt with evil as any thing ezrthly can be,
how much more conducive to his happiness must that know-

ledge be which “ maketh wise unto salvation !”

He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the great God, who loveth us,

He made and loveth all.

C, A, Jouns’ “Botanica, RAMBLES.”

PART 0h

| H
| H
| i
| { ae T A XT <b +
| CORALLINE AND SPONGE, |
}
“Verily, for nine own part, the more I look into Nature’s works, the sooner am
IT induced to beleve of her, even those things that seem incredible.” |
Old Author, quoted by Dr. JounsTon. | |
|
at gi 1
|
¢ iH
What hid’st thou in thy treasure-caves and cells, i
Tiou hollow-sounding and mysterious main ? | | |
Pie-glistening pearls, and rainbow-color’d shells, | |
Bight things that gleam unreck’d of, and in vain. | hes

Mrs. HemaAns,

CORALLINE AND SPONGE,

CorALLinE and Sponge not being admitted amongst either
the Sea-weeds or Zoophytes, we will place them where so
many naturalists have described them, as a link between
the animal and vegetable kingdoms. From the earliest
times when systematic views of nature were sought, clouds
have overhung the marching confines of these two divisions
of her great domain. We find Lamark classing Corallina
with animals, and Blainville deciding that it is a plant.
Linneus, and many other eminent men, were of opinion,
judging from its shelly appearance, that it was of animal
nature, maintaining that animals alone ever produced lime ;
but on removing the calcareous crust, we perceive that it is
merely a deposit enveloping a structure wholly vegetable
in its character.

Sponges are more generally classed as the lowest members
of the animal kingdom—far beneath the other zoophytes.
But amidst all the perplexing differences of opinion
which prevail on the subject, this yet unsettled “boun-
dary question” of Nature, which perhaps involves within
it that deeper riddle yet, that mystery of mysteries, even
the principle of life, one lesson we may learn, without
fearing that eternity itself shall teach us to unlearn it—
that we, whose span of thought cannot measure the meanest
works of God’s creation, pretend not to judge, what our
wisdom is to adore, the ways of His providence, the wonders

of His grace !

So He ordain’d whose way is in the sea,

His path amidst great waters, and his steps

Unknown ; whose judgments are a mighty deep,

Where plummet of archangel’s intellect,

Could never yet find soundings; but from age

To age, let down, drawn up, then thrown again

With lengthen’d line and added weight, still fails,

And still the ery in heaven is, “ O the depth!”
MONTGOMERY.

OCEAN FLOWERS

CORALLINE.

Tue ordinary form of the Coralline is most pleasing,
particularly when growing, as they delight to do, on the
sides of the still, rocky pools, their bushy tufts gracefully
hanging over each other, like weeping willows in miniature,

Beyond its beauty, I know not that this little creature
has any obvious claim on our consideration, except that, in
common with other sea-plants, it gives out oxygen, and
thus maintains the element in which it grows in a state fit
for the support of animal life. And here so wisely is the
balance kept up between the animals which absorb oxygen,
and the plants which evolve it, that, perhaps, the world
could not afford to lose a single species of either, without
derangement of the existing order, which would be followed

by manifest inconvenience.
P. H. Gossr.—* Tue OcEAn.”’

Fair gem of the ocean wild,
Why cast on the beach alone !
Seek’st thou, thou wandering child,
Some joy from thy bright halls flown ?
Return to thy pearly bed,
To bloom with thy kindred flowers,
Where no early buds are shed,
None die in thy smiling bowers.

And bear me to the cave,
Far down in the deep, deep sea,
Where beneath the restless wave,
The mermaid dwells with thee ;
Where she rests while the billows roar,
And the sounding surges swell,
As they bear to his native shore
The sea-boy’s sad “ farewell.”

ALLINE

COR
Biainville

COMMO

AND THEIR TEACHINGS. 99

There with her and thee I'll dwell,
Where no earthborn cares can come;
Nor long in thy fairy cell,
| For a brighter or fairer home ;
And I'll list to the dulcet song,

And join in the sea-nymphs’ ring,
| Nor ought ’mid that joyous throng
A thought of the past shall bring.

And earth with its breaking hearts,
With its fleeting hopes, shall be
Like a dream when night departs,
Or the moan of the distant sea.
Then we'll form the fairy skiff,
And we'll float o’er coral and sand,
Till we rest beneath the cliff,
Where a sound may come from the land. {

| |
| Ah no! that sound would steal | |
| O’er my soul like the sigh of a friend, }
And the tone, and the look reveal, | )
That could brightness to sorrow lend; i
That sigh would the past recall,
And the sea-bed would yield no rest |
To the weary spirit’s thrall, |
That yearns for a kindred breast.

And earth with its tears and grief,
False hopes and true fears, would be mine;
Nor again would I seek relief,
Where the pearls and the sea-weed twine.
Ah no! there’s a surer rest,
Where no grief nor fear can come,
Where the earth-weary spirit is blest,
And the pilgrim finds a home.

(M.S.) IsapeL.ta Knocxmore.

OCEAN FLOWERS

SPONGE.

Ir we take a small portion of sponge, and place it under a
magnifying lens, we shall see that it is composed of shining,
horny, nearly transparent fibres, which, by uniting with
each other at all angles and distances, form a loose and very
irregular network. Now, when in a living state, every fibre
was inclosed in a coating of thin, clear jelly, which formed
the living animal, the horny fibres constituting only the
skeleton. The animal nature of sponges is not easily to be
detected: no indication of sensation has ever been perceived
in them when living, even though violence in many modes
has been offered to them; though beaten, pinched with hot
irons, cut or torn, or subjected to the action of the strongest
acids. ‘The substance may be destroyed, but there is no con-
traction, nor the slightest evidence of feeling ; to all appear-
ance they are as passive as the rock on which they grow.

One proof of their animality, however, is open to every
one; we are all familiar with a peculiar smell produced
when horn, wool, feathers, &c., are burnt 3 this smell arises
from the presence of ammonia, and is peculiar to animal
matter; on burning a bit of sponge, this animal odour is
strongly perceptible. On viewing a living sponge in water
with attention, it is found to exhibit a constant and energetic
action, which sufficiently shows its vitality. Dr. Grant gives
the following interesting account of his discovery of this

motion in a native Species. “TI put a small branch of the

Common

RAMOSA—SPONGE
x Jobuston

“ha
aaa
cs 2
Had
Mm 8
A “
| aie ae
} O 8
H5
tel 4 |
fz }

AND THEIR TEACHINGS. 101

Spongia Coalita, with some sea-water, into a watch-glass,
under the microscope ; and on reflecting the light of a candle
through the fluid, I soon perceived that there was some
intestine motion in the opaque particles floating through the
water. On moving the watch-glass, so as to bring one of
the apertures on the side of the sponge fully into view, |
beheld for the first time, the splendid spectacle of this
living fountain, vomiting forth from a circular cavity an
impetuous torrent of liquid matter, and hurling along, in
rapid succession, opaque masses, which it strewed every
where around. The beauty and novelty of such a scene in
the animal kingdom long arrested my attention; but after
twenty-five minutes of constant observation, I was obliged
to withdraw my eye, from fatigue, without having seen the
torrent for one instant change its direction, or diminish in
the slightest degree the rapidity of its course. I continued
to watch the same orifice, at short intervals, for five hours,
sometimes observing it for a quarter of an hour at a time ;
but still the stream rolled on with a constant and equal
velocity.”
P. H. Gossr.—“* Tur OcEan.”

Wuar particular function or office has been devolved by
the all-wise Creator upon these Zoophytes, which are pro-
duced so rapidly, and in such numbers, on the bed of the
ocean and rocks, has not been ascertained, As in the case
of a vast variety of other marine animals, they probably
derive their nutriment from the contents of the water ab-
sorbed by their tubes ; they may contribute their part to the

depuration of the oceanic waters, and to the maintenance of

OCEAN FLOWERS.

i | the equilibrium amongst their inhabitants, however minute,
| which is necessary to the general welfare. Doubtless, in
their creation, He who inhabiteth eternity, to whose view
all time, as all space is present, had in view the benefit of
his creature man, to whom they form a very useful present,
and which he has long applied to his purposes. Sponges
were in use as early as Aristotle’s time, when the people

employed in collecting them observed, that when they

| attempted to pluck them up, they appeared to resist, whence
mt | they concluded they had some sensation. They now form a
Mt | | very considerable article of commerce. The fishery for them
| is chiefly carried on in the Mediterranean, particularly in the
Grecian Archipelago. The collection of sponges is attended

with danger, as they are fixed to the rocks at the depth of

several fathoms, so that the sponge-fishers must be excellent
divers. Tournefort says that no youth in these islands is
allowed to marry, till he has given proofs of his capacity in

this respect. Amongst plants, sponges present some analogy

to puff-balls,

Kirpy’s “BripGnwater TREATISE.”

PART TEED

LOOPHYTES.

Involved in sea-wrack, here you find a race,

Which science, doubting, knows not where to place ;
On shell or stone is dropt the embryo seed,

And quickly vegetates a vital breed.

nn ct

ZOOPHYTES.

THE collector of sea-weeds, whilst wandering on the beach,
or pursuing his object amongst the rocks which the tide has
left bare, will be sure to find, clinging to the Alge, or waving
gracefully on shells contiguous to them, certain pretty, deli-
cate, light-brown specimens, which he will probably consider,
if his attention have not been previously called to the subject,
as so many varieties of sea-weed. And as such they were
classed by naturalists till about a century ago, when their
true nature was discovered; and they are now established as
Zoophytes, or animal plants,—animals in their structure—
plants in their appearance.

It was to Mr. Ellis,* a merchant of London, that the dis-
covery was actually due, although there had been some
preparation for it in the works of a French naturalist,
Peyssonnel.—* Ellis was fond of amusing himself with
making imitations of landscapes, by the curious and skilful
disposition of delicate sea-weeds and corallines on paper; and
it was this amusement which directed his enquiries into the
nature of the latter, for, attracted by their beauty and neat-
ness, he was induced to examine them minutely with the

microscope, by the aid of which, he immediately perceived

* Mentioned in “ White’s Natural History of Selborne,’’ as the

*Coralline Ellis.’

\j
|
\j

106 OCEAN FLOWERS

that they differed not less from each other in respect to their
form, than they did in regard to their texture; and that in
many of them, this texture was such as to indicate their
being more of an animal than a vegetable nature.*

Ellis published his discoveries in the form of an “ Essay
towards a Natural History of Corallines, and other marine
productions of the same kind,” which appeared in 1755. He
classes these Zoophytes under the name of Corallines; but
more recent naturalists give that designation to only one
genus, which is considered by many as belonging to the

vegetable kingdom. Ellis’s English names, as being very

expressive, are given in the following pages; the Latin names
and classification are from Dr. Johnston’s most entertaining
work on British Zoophytes, from which we also extract the
following description.

“A zoophyte consists of two parts; the polype, whose
presence is essential; and the polypidom, which is the house
or support of the polype ; and which, though commonly pre-
sent, is yet not necessary to the existence of a zoophyte.
In the specimens here given, the form which meets the eye
is, in fact, the polypidom, which may be considered as a sort
of family residence, inhabited by various individuals, all
occupying separate apartments. Some, when viewed under
the microscope, will be seen to consist of a number of small
cells, each of which is the habitation of a polype. In the
larger specimens, the cells are distinctly visible to the naked
eye; and even the polype may be thus seen, when the
specimen is taken fresh out of the water. Most of the
polypes have the power of withdrawing themselves within

their cells, by the contraction of their bodies, and thus lying

* Dr. Johnston.

AND THEIR TEACHINGS. 107

concealed ; whilst some, as the Tubularia Indivisa, are
destitute of this power.”

In making the selection of zoophytes which fills the
following pages, we have endeavoured to give those which
are best calculated to illustrate the varied characters of this
interesting class, and which, at the same time, are sufficiently
abundant to furnish the requisite number of specimens.
Many kinds are so exceedingly minute, as to require the aid
of a microscope to render their form apparent, and these are
of course ineligible. Those who feel inclined to pursue the
subject further, will find a mine of interest in Dr. Johnston’s
work,* which is illustrated with plates of great accuracy and

beauty.
M. M. H.

* “A History of British Zoophytes, by George Johnston, M. D,
Second Edition.”

108 OCEAN FLOWERS

HERRING-BONE CORALLINE. |.

ie | Tus is generally found on the larger univalves, often on

oyster-shells. | Young specimens are often partially colored
| a bright yellow, dependant, apparently, on the color of the
interior pulp.

Tuis order of zoophytes is propagated by buds, or gem-
mules, and by eggs. By the former, the polype extends its
individual life, while by the latter, the species is multiplied
and continued. Every species begins its existence with a
single polype, which by the evolution of a succession of buds,
after an order peculiar to each, grows up to a polypidom, that
may contain many hundreds of tenants. On the regulated
production of these buds, the upward growth and character

neers

of the polypidom depends ; and simultaneous with its growth,
the fibres by which it is rooted extend and increase themselves,
and at uncertain intervals, give existence to similar buds,
whence new polypiferous shoots take their origin, for these
root-fibres are full of the same living medullary substance

with the rest of the body.

New buds and bulbs the living fibre shoots,

On length‘ning branches, and protruding roots.

Or on the father’s side, from bursting glands

Th’ adhering young its nascent form expands ;

| In branching lines the parent trunk adorns,

| And parts, ere long, like plumage, hairs, or horns.*

Dr. G. JOHNSTON.

Nicostratvs, in lian, finding a curious piece of wood,
and being wondered at by one, and asked what pleasure he
could take to stand as he did, still gazing on the picture ;

* Darwin's “Temple of Nature.”

Class

HALECIUM

On shells

Halecina,

and

Ellis
Family 3. SERTULARIADAZ

water Common

AND THEIR TEACHINGS. 109

answered, “ Hadst thou mine eyes, my friend, thou wouldst
not wonder, but rather be ravished as I am, at the inimitable
art of this rare and admirable piece.” I am sure no picture
can express so much wonder and excellency as the smallest
insect, but we want Nicostratus his eyes to behold them.
And the praise of God’s wisdom and power lies asleep and
dead in every creature, until man actuate and enliven it.
I cannot, therefore, altogether conceive it unworthy of the
greatest mortals to contemplate the miracles of nature, and
that as they are more visible in the smallest and almost con-
temptible creatures ; for there, most lively do they express
the infinite power and wisdom of the great Creator, and
erect and draw the minds of the most intelligent, to the
first and prime Cause of all things, teaching them, as the
power, so the presence, of the Deity in the smallest insects.

SAMUEL PuRcHASE.

THE sounds and seas, each creek and bay

With fry innumerable swarm, and shoals

Of fish, that with their fins and shining scales,
Glide under the green wave in sculls that oft

Bank the mid-sea : part single, or with mate,

Graze the sea-weed, their pasture, and through groves
Of coral stray ; or, sporting with quick glance,
Show to the sun their waved coats dropt with gold ;
Or in their pearly shells at ease, attend

Moist nutriment, or under rocks their food

In jointed armour watch : on smooth the seal,

And bended dolphins play—part, huge of bulk,
Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait,
Tempest the ocean: there Leviathan,

Hugest of living creatures, on the deep

Stretched like a promontory, sleeps or swims,

And seems a moving land, and at his gills

Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out, a flood.

MILTON.

110 OCEAN FLOWERS

SEA-FIR CORALLINE.

Tus elegant Coralline is frequently found on our coast,
adhering, by its vermicular tubes, to most kinds of shells.
It grows very erect, and is frequently infested with little

minute shells called Serpulas.
ELLis.

THE specimens are from four to six inches high, of a
yellowish horn color, sometimes tinged with red.

The Sertula Abietina is occasionally tinted of a pink or
rose-red color, the cause of which appearance has not been
ascertained. Many of the zoophytes of this order emit a
luminous or phosphorescent fluid; the beautiful appearance
they make in this state, is thus alluded to in the following

lines :—

Wair till they land, and you shall then behold
The fiery sparks those tangled fronds unfold ;
Mpyriads of living points—the unaided eye
Can but the fire, and not the form descry.
CrapBe’s ** BorovuGH.”

The following lines apply so equally well to the zoophyte
and its rock, that we are happy to appropriate its beautiful
lesson to these pages.

THE LIMPET AND THE ROCK.

In Nature’s all-instructive book,
Where can the eye of reason look,
And not some gainful lesson find,
To guide and mortify the mind ?

|
|
|
|
E |

AND THEIR TEACHINGS.

The simple shell on yonder rock
May seem, perchance, this book to mock—

Approach it then, and learn its ways,
And read the lesson it conveys.
At distance view’d, it seems to lie
On its rough bed so carelessly,
That ’twould an infant’s hand obey,
Stretch’d forth to seize it in its play ;
But let that infant’s hand draw near,
It shrinks with quick instinctive fear, |
And clings as close as though the stone

It rests upon and it were one.

* * a SS

And is not this a lesson worth |
The study of the sons of earth?

Who need a Rock so much as we?

Ah! who to such a Rock can flee ?

| A Rock to strengthen, comfort, aid,

To guard, to shelter, and to shade ;

A Rock whence fruits celestial grow,
And whence refreshing waters flow.—
No rock is like this Rock of ours!

Oh then, if you have learnt your powers

3y a just rule to estimate ;
Tf justly you can calculate,
How great your need, your strength how frail,
How prone your best resolves to fail ;

When humble caution bids you fear

A moment of temptation near,

Let wakeful memory recur

To this your simple monitor,

And wisely shun the trial’s shock

By clinging closely to your Rock.

Mayo.

112 OCEAN FLOWERS

i SEA-HAIR CORALLINE,

y) Tue branches are irregularly sprinkled with little vesicles,

the tops of which are often covered with a sort of rounded

operculum, from which one of its names is derived. The
f | resemblance of these vesicles to the capsules of mosses, was
one fact which led the early botanists to infer the vegetable
| nature of the Corallines. ‘The vesicles appear most abun-

11 | dantly in winter and spring.

“As for your pretty little seed-cups or vases, they are a
i sweet confirmation of the pleasure Nature seems to take in
superadding an elegance of form to most of her works
oS oD ?

wherever you find them. How poor and bungling are all |

the imitations of art! When I have the pleasure of seeing
you next, we will sit down—nay, kneel down, if you will—
and admire these things.”

Thus did Hogarth—our great moral painter—write to
Ellis, in evident reference to the zoophytes of the present
order; and he must indeed be more than ordinarily dull and
insensate, who can examine them without catching some of
the enthusiasm of the artist. They excel all other zoophytical
productions in delicacy and the graceful arrangement of their

forms; some borrowing the character of the prettiest marine

eee

plants, others assuming the semblance of the ostrich-plume, |
while the variety and elegance exhibited in the figures and
sculpture of their miniature cups and chalices is only limited

by the number of their species,
Dr. G. Jounston.

== ——

CL LAE

)

JLARIA OPERCULATA—SEA HAIR. Sits

ev roark on faci, particul: mn the stalks cf Laminaria Digitata

Tou lovely tenant of the ocean deep,

They call thee Ladies’ Hair, as if to mark

Thy slender form of graceful elegance.

Thou hadst thy birth in ocean’s darkest caves,
And thou wast rear’d by the united aid

Of sentient beings, numerous and minute.
When thou art view’d with microscopic eye,
Ten thousand cells thy shining stem unfolds,
Where living creatures once did move and dwell,
And pass’d their day of life and happiness.

Is it not wondrous, that the mighty God
Whose wisdom guides the stars, and rules the seas,
Should, from the great sublime to the minute,
Watch over all the beings He has form’d,

And in a bond of joy and harmony

Surround th’ illimitable universe!

Oh, Thou most glorious! when thy works I view,
Thy wisdom infinite strikes on my heart!
Throughout the scale of life’s extended range,
Thou giv’st enjoyment to each living thing,

And all proclaim, in language of their own,

That Goodness Infinite created all.

(M.S.) J. Mackness, M.D. Hastings.

Barren and desolate as the sea appears to those who only
look upon it, and search not into it, yet within its bosom are
contained creatures, exceeding in number those that walk and
creep upon the land ; insomuch that, in the sacred language,
they have their name from a word which signifies “to

multiply.”
: Bishop Horne.

OCEAN FLOWERS

SQUIRREL’S-TAIL CORALLINE.

THis is a very elegant and graceful Coralline, having much
the appearance of a squirrel’s tail, from which its English
name is taken. In young specimens the branches are simply
pinnate, and as they increase in height, they become subdi-
vided. When the specimen attains a foot or more in height,
the lower half of the stem loses its branches and cells, and
becomes entirely naked. This species, and one other, Sertu-
laria Cupressina, are the only native species which have a
distinct stem.

The Sertularia Argentea is one of the most delicate and
graceful of the zoophytes. It is generally found growing in
trios, three on one shell. Though very fragile and weak, it is
seldom found as much battered by the wave as some of the
other zoophytes ; this is probably owing to its flexibility;
even as the gentle and yielding temper bending submissively
to the will of God, escapes many a storm in life, which
dashes with destructive force against the heart which is
rendered rigid by the presence of a selfish and independent
will.

M. M. H.

Wuat is Omnipotence ?—is it not the power of attending
to all things undistracted, as well as of doing the mightiest
things unexhausted? The Almighty—is he not able to

attend to all the wants of His creatures ? Is there in crea-

tion aught that would lead us to suppose, that to his compre-

hensive eye any grandeur is imposing, or any minuteness

AND THEIR TEACHINGS.

despicable? Did he only create the suns and larger planets,

and leave it to moons and little worlds to create themselves ?

| Or, coming down to this lower world, did he bestow a
higher finish on the bulkier existences, and show little care
for the lesser and lower? Was he rejoicing in the greatness
of his strength when he formed the oak and the lion, and |
had his arm grown weary, when it reached the lily and the | |
nightingale ? Though there were no Bible to proclaim it, |
there is evidence enough; whether we look up into the

heavens with their circling worlds, or down into a drop of

water with its myriads of gay-dartirig monads, [may we not
add, or examine the exquisite structure of the tenants of a
zoophyte’s cell? |] proof enough, that He who made the whole
of such a universe, is able to attend to it.

Hamitton’s “ Mount oF OLIves.”’ |

By “looking unto Jesus,” the Christian rises, like a
nautilus, from his dark and native depths, to the pure
atmosphere and warm sunshine of another world ; spreads

forth his tiny sails of faith, and hope, and love, and is gently

wafted over the waters of life by the balmy gales of grace.

Onward he glides, beautiful in movement, and joyful in

his new existence, so long as the heavy waters of this world

are excluded : that moment he imbibes them, he sinks.

Rev. J. STEVENSON.

116 OCEAN FLOWERS

BOTTLE BRUSH CORALLINE

Tuts remarkable Coralline is sometimes a foot in height,
generally less, affixed by a tubular fibre, which is sometimes |
agglutinated to others from other shoots, so as to form a

lichen-like crust concentrically wrinkled.

It is found on the coast of Scotland, and in the north of
England; particularly about Scarborough, where from the
fishermen it received its name of Bottle Brush, according to |
Ellis.

Our specimen is from Aberdeen.
if

In the following ingenious and instructive passage, the
Sea-Anemone, a zoophyte of the order Helianthoida, is

primarily intended ; but the comparison will apply with |

nearly equal force, to any zoophyte which is rooted and
| stationary.

“Those of you who are familiar with the shore may have
seen attached to the inundated reef 4 creature, whether a «
plant or an animal you could scarcely tell, rooted to the
rock as a plant might be, and twirling its long tentacula as
an animal would do. This plant-animal’s life is somewhat

monotonous, for it has nothing to do but grow and twirl its

AND THEIR TEACHINGS

feelers, float in the tide, or fold itself upon its footstalk when

that tide has receded, for months and years together.

Now would it not be very dismal to be transformed into a
zoophyte? Would it not be an awful punishment, with
your human soul still in you, to be anchored to a rock, able
to do nothing but spin about your arms or fold them up
again, and knowing no variety except when the receding
ocean left you in the daylight, or the returning waters
plunged you into the green depths again, or the sweeping
tide brought you the prize of a young periwinkle or an
invisible star-fish? But what better is the life you are
spontaneously leading? What greater variety marks your
existence, than chequers the life of the sea-anemone ? Does
not one day float over you after another, just as the tide
floats over it, and find you much the same, and leave you
vegetating still? Are you more useful? What real service
to others did you render yesterday? What tangible amount
of occupation did you overtake in the one hundred and
sixty-eight hours of which last week consisted? And
what higher end have you in living than that polypus? You
go through certain mechanical routines of rising and dressing
and visiting and dining, and going to sleep again, and are a
little aroused from your usual lethargy by the arrival of a
friend, or the effort needed to write some note of ceremony.
But as it curtseys in the waves, and vibrates its exploring
arms and gorges some dainty medusa, the sea-anemone goes
through nearly the same round of pursuits and enjoyments,
with your intelligent and immortal self. Is this a life for a

rational and responsible creature to lead ?

Rev. J. Haminton’s “Lire 1x EARNEST.”

OCEAN FLOWERS

LOBSTER’S-HORN CORALLINE,

No zoophyte suffers so much in its appearance, by being
removed from its native position and transferred to paper, as
the Antennularia Antennina. In its natural state it is truly
a splendid object; one root bearing, perhaps, between forty
and fifty antenne, waving in every direction; sometimes
thickly clothed with short hair-like fibres, occasionally
branched, and attaining a height of eight inches and
upwards.

There are many facts which prove that the growth of
these polypidoms is very rapid, but not more so than might
be anticipated when it is remembered how vast is the number
of polype architects ; and no sooner is a new branch extended
than it becomes almost simultaneously a support of new
workers, which, with “toil unweariable,” add incessantly to
the materials of increase.* Their duration is various: some
have only a summer’s existence, as Laomedea Geniculata ;
many are probably annual; and the epiphyllous kinds
cannot, at most, prolong their term beyond that of the weed on
which they grow ; but such as attach themselves to rocks, are
probably less perishable, for their size and consistency seem
to indicate a greater age. There are facts which appear to
prove that the life of the individual polypes is even more
transitory than their own cells; that, like a blossom, they
bud and blow and fall off, or are absorbed, when another
sprouts up from the medullary pulp to occupy the very cell
of its predecessor, and, in its turn, to give way, and be
replaced by another. Lamouroux says, “Some there are
that are entirely covered with polypi through the summer
and autumn, but they perish with the cold of winter: no
sooner, however, has the sun resumed his revivifying in-
fluence than new animals are developed, and fresh branches
are produced upon the old ones.”

Dr. G, Jounsron.
R66 5 One aris r ¥ T
a Tn the Sertularia Polyzonias, I have some reason to believe that a
large Specimen can be formed, under favorable circumstances, in the course
of fourteen days.”

kat
RS

LOBSTE

ed to the feels

eo
£
s
a
3

AND THEIR TEACHINGS. 119

The following lines were written after reading Hamilton’s
remarks on the zoophyte.

A WEARY, weary lot is thine,
Half-living blossom of the wave ;
Fast anchor’d, on thy rock to pine,
Thine asking arms to stretch and twine,
That hopelessly for action crave.
Earth’s prisoner thou, the offspring of the sea,
Captive, yet born of boundless liberty.

Alas for all like thee !—for those,
The ardent heart, the soaring mind,
Thro’ whom th’ electric current flows,
Yet only life enough bestows
To make them thrill with powers confined,
Quiv’ring with voiceless thought and aimless hope,
And restless energy that finds no scope.

Oh patience! ye that know too well
The pangs those check’d aspirings give !
In patient faith their tumult quell ;
Be still! not here for aye ye dwell,
Not thus in death for ever live.
The might within you finds no utterance here ;
No! in a nobler world it hath its sphere.

Woe most for those—ah, most woe worth !—
Immortal souls that vilely grow
Root-bound amidst the things of earth,
In whom the instincts of their birth
All vainly plead, and strain, and glow ;
Close to their muddy shelf they cling, nor move,
Tho’ round them rolls the sea of heavenly love.

Up, idlers, up !—on Life’s full tide,
Your pathway and your place discern ;
Up, in Heaven’s name! the billows ride
In heavenly might, with Heaven to guide :
Lest, as ye serve, your wage ye earn,
And living thus, thus evermore ye die,
Time-rooted zoophytes of eternity !

(MLS.) A. J. Vipat.

OCEAN FLOWERS

SICKLE CORALL

A comMON and very elegant species, generally from four to
six inches in height, rising in wide spiral turns, and sending
out plumous branches from its stem at regulated intervals.
In young specimens the branches are two-ranked and alternate.

Dr. Grant thinks that polypi are not the first formed parts
of this zoophyte, but are organs which appear long after the
formation of the root and stem, as the leaves and flowers of

a plant.

One of the general objects of the vegetable kingdom was
to ornament the dry land with what was fair to look upon, as
well as with what was good for food. But the depths of
ocean, though planted with various vegetables, seem unapt to
exhibit in beauty the frail blossoms of the plant, which,
though they can bear the fluctuations of their own atmo-
sphere, must often be destroyed by the greater weight and
more irresistible agitations of a denser element. To orna-
ment the bosom of the deep, therefore, more solid forms,
sending forth blossoms capable of sustaining the action of

such an element, were requisite ; and therefore God, who

gifted his creature man with an inquiring spirit, and with
an appetite for knowledge of the works of creation, to furnish

him with objects of inquiry, and to gratify that appetite to

AND THEIR TEACHINGS, 121

the utmost, not only placed before his eyes on the earth an
innumerable host of creatures, of which he could gain a

notion by only opening his eyes, and by observing their
beauties, and experiencing their utility, might praise his
Maker for them ; but also filled the deep with inhabitants,
and ornamented it with animals, which appearing to vegetate
and blossom like plants, his curiosity being excited, he might
also study the inhabitants of the water, and glorify his Maker
for the creation of them.

Kirsy’s “ BrrpGewaTer TREATISE.”

These remarks may be well succeeded, we think, by the
beautiful ideas expressed in the following lines by two of our
favourite poets :—

“The faint echoes in my breast that dwell,
And for their birth-place moan, as moans the ocean-shell.”

“Forest Sanctuary.” Mrs. Hemans.

Such a shell has Wordsworth thus described :-—

“T have seen
A curious child, who dwelt upon a tract
Of inland ground, applying to his ear
The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell ;
To which, in silence hush’d, his very soul
Listen’d intently, and his countenance soon
Brighten’d with joy; for murmurings from within
Were heard, sonorous cadences ! whereby
To his belief the monitor express’d
Mysterious union with its native sea.
—Even such a shell the universe itself

Is to the ear of faith.
Tue “ Excurston.”

OCEAN FLOWERS

THE PODDED CORALLINE.

“acu plume,” siys M. Sister, in reference to a specimen

i 7 - - - . ; < P
if of this coralline, “night comprise from 400 to 500 polypi;
| ; eae T
vat and a specimen of o0 unusual size before me, has twelve
i plumes, with certainy not fewer cells on each than the larger
t ? be)

number mentioned; ‘hus giving 6000 polypes as the tenantry
| | of a single polypiom! Now many such specimens, all
united too by a conmon fibre and all the off-shoots of one
common parent, areoften located on one sea-weed; the site

then of a populationwhich not London nor Pekin can rival !

But Plumularia Crstata is a small Species; and there are
single specimens of ?lumularia Falcata or Sertularia Argen-
ii tea, of which the fanily may consist of 80,000 or 100,000
if individuals. It is such calculations, always under-rated,

HEE that illustrate ‘the magnalities of Nature,’ and take us

by surprise, leaving us in wonderment at what may be the
great objects of ths her exuberant production of these
| ‘insect-millions, peoling every way.’ ”

Dr. G. JOHNSTON.

Wate thus vith pleasing wonder"you inspect

8 oo
| Treasures the vulgar in their scorn reject,
1] See as they fbat along, th’ entangled weeds,

Slowly approich, upborne on bladdery beads.

|
qi CRABBE.

: a

AND THEIR TEACHINGS.

THe number of living creatures, of all orders, whose
existence intimately depends upon that of the kelp (Fucus
Giganteus), is wonderful. A vast volume might be written
describing the inhabitants of one of these beds of sea-weeds.
Almost every leaf, excepting those that float on the surface,
is so thickly incrusted with corallines as to be of a white
color. We find exquisitely delicate structures, some inha-
bited by simple hydra-like polypi, others by more organized
kinds, and beautiful compound Ascidie. On the flat surface
of the leaves, various patelliform shells, Trochi, uncovered
molluscs, and some bivalves, are attached, with innumerable
crustacea, which frequent every part of the plant.

Darwin’s “JOURNAL OF THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE.”

In the following pretty description of the obsequies of
Icarus, the “pearly sea-flowers” may well find their repre-

sentatives in the ‘* Podded Corallines.”

So erst with melting wax and loosen’d strings,
Sunk hapless Icarus on unfaithful wings ;
His scatter’d plumage danced upon the wave,

And sorrowing mermaids deck’d his watery grave ;

O’er his pale corse their pearly sea-flowers shed,

And strew’d with crimson moss his marble bed,
Struck in their coral towers the passing bell,

And wide in ocean toll’d his echoing knell.
Darwin.

124 OCEAN FLOWERS

COAT OF MAIL CORALLINE.

THE cells in this zoophyte are placed back to back, “so
that the pair together resemble a coat of mail or pair of stays,
and the entrances of the cells look like the places for the
arms to come out,”—Exiis. This appearance is distinctly
visible under the microscope.

THE coral insect, of which so much has been written, and
which plays so important a part in the world’s physical
history, is a foreign species of zoophyte of the order Helian-
thoida; and as it may therefore claim a near relationship
with the little beings whose habitations adorn our pages, it
will not be out of place to present to our readers the follow-
ing beautiful passage from the sermons of the present Bishop
of Oxford, in which a striking analogy is drawn between the
achievements of these wonder-working insects and the slow,
silent, gradual process

by which has pleased God to build up
His kingdom on the earth.

“How many holy men have prayed and waited long for
strength, and suffered and resisted temptation, and crushed
the evil self within, and so borne their witness for Christ,
before any evil influence in society was uprooted, or any holy
and true principle established or widely spread abroad.
And thus their secret struggles, their slowly-ripened Chris-
tian graces, have become the blessing of the Church around
them : even as the strong foundations of those coral islands
of the southern seas, which are now so rich and verdant
with the prodigal upgrowth of grass, and flower, and tree,
were wrought silently in the chambers of the deep by
thousands of living beings which were never seen by those
who have entered into their labours.”

Wixperrorce’s SERMONS.

NOTAMIA

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IDIOTDA.

Order 4. Aso

PoLyzoa,

Class 2

‘amily 10. Crts1ap#.

uter-mark, on all our Coasts

Found a few fath:

AND THEIR TEACHINGS. 1

bo
oO

THE CORAL INSECT
Mixtions of millions thus from age to age,
With simplest skill, and toil unweariable,
No moment and no movement unimproved,
Laid line on line, on terrace terrace spread,
To swell the heightening, brightening, gradual mound,
By marvellous structure climbing towards the day.
Each wrought alone, yet all together wrought ;
Unconscious, not unworthy, instruments,
By which a Hand invisible was rearing
A new creation in the secret deep.
Onnipotence wrought in them, with them, by them ;
Hence what Omnipotence alone could do
Worms did. $i i : =

A point at first,
It peer’d above those waves; a point so small,
I just perceived it, fixt where all was floating ;
And when a bubble cross’d it, the blue film
Expanded like a sky above the speck ;
That speck became a hand-breadth ; day and night
It spread, accumulated, and ere long
Presented to my view a dazzling plain,
White as the moon, a sapphire sea ;
Bare at low water, and as still as death ;
But when the tide came gurgling o’er the surface,
"T'was like a resurrection of the dead:
From graves innumerable, punctures fine
In the close coral, capillary swarms
Of reptiles, horrent as Medusa’s snakes,
Cover’d the bald-pate reef ; then all was life
And indefatigable industry;
The artisans were twisting to and fro,
In idle-seeming convolutions ;
Yet they ne’er vanish’d with the ebbing surge,
Till pellicle on pellicle, and layer
On layer, was added to the growing mass.
MontcGomery’s “Pentcan Isianp.”

126 OCEAN FLOWERS

BROAD-LEAVED HORN-WRACK CORALLINE.

Hooker, in his Micrographia, says, “For curiosity and
beauty, I have not, among all plants and vegetables I have
yet observed, seen any one comparable to this sea-weed.
When recent, it exhales a pleasant scent.”

Dr. Grant says, “ The aperture of the cells (in the Flustra)
is formed by a semicircular lid, which folds down when the
polypus is about to advance from the cell.”

Wao can measure the difference between a grain of sand
and the sun of our system ?—or between the lowest creature
that seems to form the link between the animal and vegetable
world, and the mind of Solomon or Paul ?

Still all these beings so different, extending from things
lower than we can conceive, up to things higher than our
conceptions; all, from the highest angel to the lowest atom,
are yet, religiously speaking, all classed together as though
they were all equal. They are all creatures; and however

different when compared with themselves, yet they seem
actually to be all on one level when contrasted with that
infinite difference which exists between the highest creature
and God.

Dr. ARNOLD,

THE WHITE CORAL POLYPE

“Bur the most celebrated Polypes, and those which pro-
duce the most wonderful effects in some parts of the globe
that we inhabit, belong to the genus Madrepora. It is
amongst the species of this genus that we are to look for the
polype which is instructed by its Creator not only to erect
rocky reefs, of vast extent and wonderful solidity—which

'
!

FLUSTRA FOLIACEA—BROAD-LEAVED HORN-WRACK
(Ellis.)

lass 2, Poryzoa Order 4. Ascrpiormba. Family 13. Escuaripz.

Name from the Saxon “ flustrian,” to weave; hence flustra, applied by Linnesus to
these sea-mats.

Found on hard ground, in a few fathoms water.

AND THEIR TEACHINGS. 127

often arrest and perplex the course of the navigator, and
greatly increase the perils of navigation—and submarine
mountains, that keep gradually diminishing the mass of
waters, but also islands, which, emerging from the ocean, in
process of time are covered with vegetation, and fitted to
receive and maintain an animal population, with man at their
head. The species principally engaged in this great work is
the coral called by Linneus the muricated Madrepore, and
generally known by the name of white coral, Its polype,
though so celebrated for its wonderful works, seems to be
unknown. They do not always elevate their polyparies
(polypidoms) from the depths of the water to its surface ;
some extend themselves horizontally upon the bottom of the
sea, following its curvatures, declivities, and anfractuosities,
and cover the soil of old ocean with an enameled carpet of
various and brilliant colours, sometimes of a single colour as
dazzling as the purple of the ancients. Many of these
beings are like a tree which winter has stripped of its
leaves, but which the spring adorns with new flowers; and
they strike the beholder by the éclat of petal-like animals
with which their branches are covered from the base to the
extremity. After considering all the wonderful facts with
regard to the proceedings and progress of these seemingly
insignificant animals, a speculative imagination may not only
picture to itself, with respect to any group of coral islands,
its conversion into one vast plain, yielding forests of bread-
fruit and other trees, and ultimately sustenance to a numerous
population, and a variety of animals subservient to their use;
but taking a wider range and still further enlarging its view,
might behold the tropical portion of the vast Pacific studded
with these islands, and so large as almost to form a kind of
bridge of communication between Asia and America. Indeed,
at present we know not how far these founders of islands
may have been concerned in rearing a considerable portion
of those continents that form the old world.”

Kirsy’s “BripGEwaTerR TREATISE.”

Oe ————————————E

OCEAN FLOWERS

NARROW-LEAVED HORN-WRACK CORALLINE.

Tue Flustra Truncata attains a height of four or five
inches, is very bushy, and acquires a kind of varnish when
dry.

Seen under a microscope, Dr. Grant says the opening of
the lid of its cell appears like the opening of a snake’s jaws.

Wuen the Creator formed the coral animals, what fore-
sight, as well as power and wisdom did he manifest! That
a minute pouch of animated matter, with no other organs
than a few tubercles surrounding its mouth, should be fitted
to secrete calcareous particles from food collected by it, to
transpire or regurgitate them, so as to construct for itself a
limestone house, and should be empowered perpetually to
send forth germs, that could also act the same part, is in itself
sufficiently wonderful; but, that in process of time, these
animals by their combined efforts, should build up in the
fluctuating ocean not merely insignificant islets, but whole
groups of islands and extensive ridges, I had almost said
continents, is still more worthy of admiration ;—but far beyond
and above this, that creative wisdom should so order all other
circumstances connected with this procedure; as for instance,
the action of the waves and winds upon this nascent little
world, that they, when the animal has built up to that point,

which its nature (for it cannot exist out of the water) enables

it to attain, should take up the wonderful work, and by other

means complete his design, give the structure its due eleva-

tion, furnish it with fountains and streams, cover it with a

AND THEIR TEACHINGS. 129

soil capable of affording nutriment to plants and trees,

yielding a supply of food to some portion of the animal
kingdom, and, finally, to man himself—how strikingly does
this whole concatenation of dependent circumstances, demon-
strate the adaptation of means to an end by the Infinite Mind.

Kirpys “Bripcewater TREATISE.”

Tort on! toil on! ye ephemeral train,

Who build in the tossing and treacherous main;

Toil on,—for the wisdom of man ye mock,

| With your sand-based structures, and domes of rock;

Your columns the fathomless fountains lave,

And your arches spring up to the crested wave;

Ye’re a puny race, thus to boldly rear

A fabric so vast, in a realm so drear.

Ye bind the deep with your secret zone,

The ocean is seal’d and the surge a stone;

Fresh wreaths from the coral pavement spring,

Like the terraced pride of Assyria’s king;

| The turf looks green where the breakers roll’d,
O’er the whirlpool ripens the rind of gold;

The sea-snatch’d isle is the home of men,

And mountains exult where the wave hath been.

Ye build,—ye build,—but ye enter not in!

Like the tribes whom the desert devour’d in their sin,
From the land of promise ye fade and die,

Ere its verdure gleams forth on your weary eye;

As the kings of the cloud-crewn’d pyramid

Their noteless bones in oblivion hid,

Ye slumber unmark’'d ’mid the desolate main, | :

.
| While the wonder and pride of your works remain.

Lypia H. S1couRNEY. |

OCEAN FLOWERS

In this species there are more than eighteen cells in a
square line, or 1800 in a square inch of surface, and the
branches of an ordinary specimen present about ten square
inches of surface; so that a common specimen of the Flus-

tra Carbasea presents more than 18,000 polypi.
GRANT.

AND now, should it be asked, granting all this to be true,
to what end has so much labour been bestowed in the
demonstration? I can only answer that, as to me these
disquisitions have opened new scenes of wonder and astonish-
ment, in contemplating how variously, how extensively life
is distributed through the universe of things ; so it is possible
that the facts here related, and these instances of nature
animated in a part hitherto unsuspected, may excite the like
pleasing ideas in others ; and in minds more capacious and
penetrating, lead to farther discoveries, farther proofs (should
any be wanting) that one infinitely wise, good, all-powerful
Being, has made, and still upholds, the whole of what is good
and perfect; and hence we may learn, that if creatures of so
low an order in the great scale of nature, are endued with
faculties which enable them to fill up their sphere of action
with such propriety; we, likewise, who are advanced so many
gradations above them, owe to ourselves, and to Him who

made us and all things, a constant application to acquire that

degree of rectitude and perfection, to which we are also

endued with faculties of attaining.

ELLs,

AND THEIR TEACHINGS. 131

In its sublime research, philosophy

May measure out the ocean deep—may count

The sands, or the sun’s rays—But, God! for Thee
There is no weight nor measure:—none can mount
Up to thy mysteries; reason’s brightest spark,
Though kindled by thy ight, in vain would try
To trace thy counsels, infinite and dark:

And thought is lost ere thought can soar so high,
Even like past moments in eternity.

Thou from primeval nothingness didst call

Tirst chaos, then existence;

Lord, on thee
all

Sprung forth from thee:—of light, joy, harmony,

Eternity had its foundation:

Sole origin:—all life, all beauty thine.

Thy word created all, and doth create;

Thy splendor fills all space with rays divine;

Thou art, and wast, and shalt be, Glorious! Great!
Light-giving, life-sustaining Potentate.

Thy chains the unmeasured universe surround:
Upheld by thee, by thee inspired with breath!
Thou the beginning with the end hast bound,
And beautifully mingled life and death!

As sparks fly upward from the fiery blaze,

So suns are born, so worlds spring forth from thee;
And as the spangles in the sunny rays

Shine round the silver snow, the pageantry

Of heaven’s bright army glitters in thy praise.

Bowrina.

CONCLUSION.

We have here presented to*our readers a few of the
“treasures of the deep;” but how many remain untouched !
Whole classes, whole groups of interesting objects, besides
humerous species in the classes we have noticed. There
are the shells—they would require a volume—there are
the various finny tribes, sometimes so strange in form, some-
times so gorgeous in coloring—there are the ocean-rocks
themselves—but we must stop in our enumeration of these
untouched wonders, and only give our readers one piece of

singular beauty—

THE LONE ROC]
THERE is a single stone
Above yon wave,
A rocky islet lone,
Where tempests rave.
What doth it there? The sea,
Restless and deep,

Breaks round it mournfully,

And knows no sleep.

The sea hath hung it round
With its wild weed ;
No place can there be found

For better seed;

OCEAN FLOWERS.

Storm-beaten rock! no change

Tis thine to know!
Only the water's range
Of ebb and flow.

The happy sounds of earth
Are not for thee,

The voice of human mirth,
Of children’s glee,

No song of birds is thine,
No crown of flowers ;
Say, dost thou not repine,

Thro’ long lone hours ?

Yet stars for thee are bright
In midnight skies,
And tranquil worlds of light

Around thee rise.

They smooth thine ocean-bed,
Its heavings cease,
While they from o’er thy head

Breath on thee peace,

The wearied man of grief
Like thee I deem,
To whom comes no relief

Thro’ life’s dark dream.

No human ties are left,
Earth’s hopes are gone,
He dwells like one bereft

Blighted, alone!

OCEAN FLOWERS

Yet o’er him from above
Bright spirits bend,
And He whose name is Love,

Calls him His friend.

And thus he thinkful learns
Why grief wis given ;
And trusting, peaceful turns

To God in Heaven !*

And now, at the conclusior of a work like this, may we
not well say, with Sharon Tumer, that “the ocean has been
formed with as much regard to taste and beauty as the
earth; and yet, like the eartl, it bears the impress of the
curse; it preaches the moral, “ Arise ye, and depart, for

this is not your rest, because it is polluted.”
“There is sorrow on the sea.’”’—Jer. xlix. 23.

“THERE is sorrow on the se:,” when the loving cherish’d
boy,

His widow’d mother’s solace, and his fair young sister’s joy,

Gazes on their lessening forns, which he may behold no
more,

And with strangers goes to toil, on a distant, unknown

shore.

* “Hymns and Songs for the Sick ard Suffering.” By T. V. Foshery,

+ Micah ii. 10.

AND THEIR TEACHINGS.

135

“There is sorrow on the sea,’ when the young and gentle
bride,

For new friends and foreign home, quits her tender parents’
side ;

Sweet sisters and companions blend fond wishes with their
tears,

And her hopes and joys are dimm’d by sad thoughts of

distant years.

“There is sorrow on the sea,’ when the widow leaves the
shore

Of her late so joyous home, the wide sea to cross once more;

The desire of her meek eyes, by a stroke has been removed;

Like Naomi she returns, but wthout a Ruth beloved.

“There is sorrow on the sea,” when the transport-ship sets
sail,

And some among the convicts dl too late their sin bewail ;

They who think with breaking hearts of the shame and
bitter pain,

Bequeathed by them to loved ones, they shall ne’er behold

again.

“There is sorrow on the sea,” when the raging storm beats
high,

And the riven vessel sinks, andno friendly bark is nigh;

And when the spreading smoke-wreath dread, proclaims the
ship on fire,—

From shore, from ship, no re;cue—the crew’s last hopes

expire.

136 OCEAN FLOWERS

‘There is sorrow on the sea,” for that man, fall’n man, is
there,

And earth, and sea, and creatures, must awhile his sorrow
share ;

But a blissful kingdom cometh, where sin shall cease to be,

With death and sorrow, tears and pain, “and there is no
more sea !?

Behold, with clouds He cometh, who will make all things
new,

A heaven and earth all glory, far too bright for mortal view:

Nor sun, nor moon, nor temple, in that shining world are
known,

For God the Lamb is all in all, on his eternal Throne !

Mrs. Van Hacen.

To the Christian there remains this blessed prospect.—
Whatever may be the precise meaning of those words found
in the Apocalypse, “And there was no more sea,” they
surely relate to a time when all sin, sorrow. and imperfection
shall be for ever banished from the habitation of God’s

children.

“And there was no more sea.’’—Rev. xxi. 1.

Anp there was no more sea!”
Oh! words of peace and rest,
Breathing so tenderly

Calm to the troubled breast !

AND THEIR TEACHINGS. 137

No more of chance and change,
No more of doubts and fears,
Of hideous things, and strange,

That scare our tingling ears.

And there was no more se
No more of darksome deeps,
No more such mystery
As in its bosom sleeps ;
No vast abyss of sin,
No waves of wrath and pride,
Nor whirlpools, that suck in

Th’ unwary and untried.

And there was no more sea :”

No more of faithless crowd,
Wavering restlessly,

Fickle, and fierce, and loud;
No more of tumult rude,

No more of wild turmoil,
Nor roaring multitude,

Nor violence, “nor spoil.

‘ And there was no more sea :”

No more of sever’d hearts,
Of that full agony

When friend from friend departs.
No more of parting tears,

Of dim and aching eyes,
Of weary, lingering years,

When hope, slow-sickening, dies.

138 OCEAN FLOWERS, ETC.

‘And there was no more sea!”
Oh! words of peace and rest,
Breathing so tenderly,

Calm to the troubled breast.

ANNA J. VIDAL.

But while we anticipate with holy hope the glorious day
when there shall be no more Sea, let us not forget that this |
great ocean, while it yet lasts, is to us a gracious gift of
that God, of whom it is said, that “His way is in the sea, |
his paths in the great waters, and his footsteps are not
known.” So feeling, we would close our pages with one

last expression of admiration and delight. |

FAREWELL, thou wonder of the earth,

Coeval, p’rhaps, with time,

That swept, ere yonder orb had birth,
Thy foam o’er every clime,

In darkness, ere the all-forming God

Call’'d from thy depths the rock and clod ;
Earth’s image of eternity,—

The Sea, the Sea for me !

Tue Laure.

DIRECTIONS

PREPARING SPECIMENS OF SEA-WEED, &c. |

| ; : 3
As we are not without hope that the sight of our specimens may prove

an incitement to other collectors, we offer a few of the results of our ;

experience as to drying and preserving Algze and Zoophytes.
Different kinds of sea-weed require different treatment. The first thing

to be done when taken from the beach and rock, isto wash it thoroughly in

fresh water; some of the larger kinds will require several washings; many
of the finer red kinds will improve in color, if left in spring water for 5
some hours; but Ceramium Rubrum, on the contrary, must be suffered 1

to remain in water but a very short time, all its color otherwise quickly

disappearing.

The Fucoid# may be dried and prepared much the same as land plants.

The Florides, and all the finer sorts, require to be spread out on the

paper introduced under them whilst floating in the water. For this
purpose, a shallow dish is the best, and some fine steel instrument, not |
I

| too sharp at the tip, for separating the branchlets: or they may be spread

out on earthenware plates, the water being gradually drained from under

| them. If spread on paper, they should be left to drain for a few minutes, | I
and then placed between other papers, under some moderate weight. A | ~~
rug, or something of similar weight and absorbing quality, in a warm 3
situation, answers remarkably well for this purpose; but they should not 2
be placed too near the fire, or allowed to dry too quickly, as they will &

| curl up. When they are quite dry, all the sorts in this book, with the

following exceptions, will, with care, peel off the paper, and may then be

placed in books to flatten.

- } v m pe Aaa Pee, a ees PO Beng ic |= mores
Rhodomenia Palmata is one of the most difficult to dry, as it adheres to

whatever it touches: it requires but slight pressure, and should be

removed to the leaves of a book in two d

iS. It is best to dry it on tin,

or oil pz

Nytophyllum Ocellatum also dries best on tin or oil paper.
Laurencia Pinnatifida, ditto.

Desmarestia Aculeata should always be spread out when first gathered,

as it Soon becomes flaccid, and cannot be made to regain its stiffness.

1e Ulva tribe require to be spread when first gathered, as they soon

cay, and will not bear a second wettine. But nearly al] kinds of sea-

weed, if thoroughly washed and dried when fre

gathered, will keep for

iny length of time, and on being put

1in into fresh water, will spread
out as well as at first.

The Bryopsis Plumosa should be placed on the paper immediately from
the rocks where it is found; it can afterwards be transferred to other
paper under water.

Porphyra, when arrived at nearly the last stage of drying, contracts

almost immediately on being exposed to the air; the best way of obviating

this difficulty is to have a book open ready to receive it, before the pres-

sure is taken off the plant, and removing it quickly into the book, from

the drying paper—there leaving it pressed until it

known to be
thoroughly dry.

Zoophytes, Coralline, and Sponge, require only to be car

fully washed
and spread, and placed under paper when wet.

The best paper for drying sea-weeds, &c., is Bentall’s botanical paper,
or grocer’s cartridge paper: the more delicate kinds should be first
placed between writing-paper, or manuscript-paper, which does equally
well.

The best cement for fixing the Specimens on paper, is thin eum water
with flour stirred into it; the proportion is a 1:

ge spoonful of flour in a
cup of gum.
Seaweeds should

not be placed in a tin box, as they soon decompose

there.

INDEX TO AUTHORS.

Page.
Akenside, Mark : ; ‘ ; : +e |
Alexander (Earl of Stirling) ; : ; - 80
Author of “ Amy Herbert ” : ; 2 $ I
Author of the “ The Cathedral ”’ ; : ; eer
Arnold, Dr. 27, 126
3arton, Bernard : : : . . 19
Bory de St. Vincent, Col. ; : ‘ - Ge
Bowring . ‘ j F : ~ wea
Brainerd ‘ 3 é : ; ‘ 34
Browne, Mary Aun E : 2 € . 26
Byron, Lord. ‘ ; ; ; . 16
Campbell, Thomas - . ; ‘ 3 21
Carmichael, Captain j . = F 16
Chalmers ‘ é : ‘ z 9
Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal : 49, 55, 57, 61, 78, 80
Cornwall, Barry é é F : 3 17
Cowper = . ‘ . : : 3)

Crabbe 7 : ¥ a 20; 57, 103, 1:10, T22

Darwin, Dr.

142 INDEX

AUTHORS.

Darwin, Journal of the Voyage of the Beagle

Drummond (First Steps to Botany)

Edgeworth, Maria

Ellis

Fellow of the Linnzan Society, (

Foshery, T. V.

French, R. C. (Translation from the Persian)

Gilbert, George (Bury School)

Graham, Mary Jane
Grant

Gray

Greville, Dr.

Guesses at Truth

Hamilton (Life in Earnest)
———— (Mount of Olives)
Harvey, Hon. W. H.
Hemans, Felicia

Henslow, Professor
Herschell, Sir J.

Hooker, Sir W.

Horne, Bishop

Howitt, Mary

Howitt, Richard

100,

Naturalist’s Poetical Companion)

INDEX TO AUTHORS. 143 |
;
| i
Page. 1
Isabella (Knockmore) . ‘ . ‘ 77, 99
Johns, C. A, (Botanical Rambles) . ‘ 47, 49, 61, 63, 94 | i r
Johnson, Dr. (Rambler 83.) . : : E 8 i :
Johnston, Dr. G. ‘ 5 * 108, 112, 118, 122 ;
i
i
Keble, John. i ; . : ¢-228 <
Kirby, Dr... : ; 102, 121, 127, 129 &
Little Marine Botanist, The 3 50, 52, 53, 62, 66, 72, 84, 90
Laurel, The . “ ? : z - 188
| q
| {
Mackness, J. M. (M. D., Hastings) ‘ 14, 59, 91, 113
Margaret (Knockmore) ; = : . 67 a
Mayo 3 ; ’ 7 : ea ‘
Milton . : : ; . - OD
MMH. 5 . 4, 107, 114 Gg
M. M. (White Park, Antrim) ; : : - 50 } Ps:
Monk Mason ; : : . » 88 i hg
Moore, Thomas : z 5 : St: a
| Montgomery - F ; ; 23, 80, 96, 125 |
| ~
| | i
Newton (Olney Hymns) 2 3 ‘ O08 l:
Ocean, The (P. H. Gosse) 51, 52, 58, 72, 76, 92, 93, 98, 127 %
| Old Author (Quoted by Dr. G. Johnston) e ~ . 95 | x
|
Paley 67 es
| Percival, J. G. ‘ . , - 2, 51, 48 | 3
|

Sea-weed Collector

Sights in all Seasons
Sigourney, Lydia H.
Smith, Mrs. C.

Somerville, Mary

Songs of the Parsonage

Southey, Robert
Stevenson, Rev. J.

Stillingfleet, Benjamin

Taylor, Jane

Taylor,—“ Edwin the Fair,’

Tupper, M. F.

Turner, Sharon

Vidal, Anna J.

Van Hagen, Mrs.

Wordsworth

Wilberforce, Dr. S.

t
h

a
| } .
| INDEX 10 SPECIMENS. |

PART I.—ALG®.

Facing Page.

Porphyra Laciniata

Bryopsis Plumosa . . : ” - 92
Ceramium Rubrum 78
Chondrus Crispus : ' ‘ wen se :
Conferva Rupestris 5 A F ‘ 88 7 :
Cystoseira Fibrosa : : ; ‘ » 64 Ss
Delesseria Alata ‘ . 3 90 =
as Sanguinea ‘ : : : 58
Desmarestia Aculeata ’ F : . i6U a .
Fucus Serratus : ‘ ‘ . . 46 | | nm
——. Vesiculosus é 7 ° ‘ . 48 | Bs
Gigartina Plicata - r : : 80 | Ls
Halidrys Siliquosa 62 §
Laurencia Pinnatifida 3 . : é vom FO yy
Nitophyllum Ocellatum . : : ° = 66 i
Odonthalia Dentata ‘ : : : ‘ 74 oO
Phyllophora Rubens 86 } ie.
| Plocamium Coccineum . ‘ $ é ; 72 x
Polysiphonia Fastigiata 82 =
| ——__——-_ Nigrescens 84 ,
| 3 =
| 54

146

Ptilota Plumosa

Rhodomela Pinastroides

Rhodomenia Palmata

Ulva Linza

INDEX

SPECIMENS.

PART IIl.—CORALLINE AND

Corallina Officinale

Helichondria Ramosa

SPONGE.

PART IIl—ZOOPHY'ES.

Antennularia Antennina

Flustra Carbasea
—— Foliacea
—~— Truncata
Halecium Halecinum
Notamia Loriculata
Plumularia Cristata
————+—Falcata
Sertularia Abietina
———— Argentea
——— Operculata

Thuaria Thuia

Page 14. Note. For*‘J, Ma:

Pe . For ** Marine Botar
ditto

For “ Isabella Knockmore,”

- For ** this yet unsettled ?

Page 99. For ** Isabella Knockmore,

read * Isabella,
ad. ** of this
read ** Isabella.

yet unsettled

(Knockmore, )”’

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