Page:Sea and River-side Rambles in Victoria.djvu/103

84 Work from which we have quoted, how much more reason has he now after a recent visit to these shores, when he records having collected "20,000 specimens of 600 species of Seaweeds, besides incidental collections of Marine Zoology" to laud the richness of our seas! Already in the beautiful publication which is the result of this visit, have appeared above two hundred figures of the most lovely of our Algae from various parts of the Australian coast, and most sincerely do we wish the labors of Dr. Harvey may be appreciated as they richly deserve.

Seaweeds, as doubtless many of our readers are aware, differ from land plants in having no true flowers, without any proper roots, but nourished through their entire surface by the water in which they grow, and propagated as many others of the order Cryptogamia, to which they belong, by means of spores arranged in various way on the frond.

Algæ are divided into three series; the first of which is termed Melanospermeæ, from the spores of the plants comprised in it being black or olive colored. They generally grow at half tide level, becoming less frequent towards low water mark, and gradually getting darker in color the deeper they grow. In this series there are many interesting plants, such as Sargassum, Seirococcus, the Sporochnus, distinguishable by the tuft of soft hairs which crown—brush like—the tips of the branches, the rare Bellotia Eriophorum, Padina from the Queenscliff pools, and several species of the Zonaria.

Many of the Fucaceæ were at one time, and perhaps to some extent now are, valuable for the manufacture