Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/51

24 specimens are exposed to the sun's rays, the purple ones are such as have grown in deep shadow. The species is the Laurencia pinnatifida of botanists.

Turning from the hidden clefts, we explore the deep pools that lie between the ledges. High wading–boots are necessary for this purpose, as we have to work in the water. The great Oar-weeds and Tangles (Laminaria) are growing here, large olive sea-weeds that wave to and fro with the undulations of the sea; the former a long narrow puckered frond of brown colour; the latter a broad smooth leathery expanse of deeper colour on a slender stalk, splitting with age into a number of lengthened fingers or ribbons, and hence called the fingered Tangle (Laminaria digitata). Among these grow clusters of an elegantly frilled species, of delicate thin texture, and yellow–brown hue, bearing no slight resemblance to the tresses of some fair lady: this also is a Laminaria, but I am not quite sure whether it is the young state of the former species, or entitled to a name of its own. In the latter case, it is the L. phyllitis of botanists (See Plate VI). One result of the establishment of Marine Aquaria will be a more general acquaintance and consequently a better and more satisfactory one, with the tenants of the sea, than has hitherto been practicable; since they can now be sudiedstudied [sic] to far greater advantage than when blanched in bottles of spirits, or pressed between the leaves of a book.

In these deep pools grew also those bunches of broad dark-red leaves, which are probably the most conspicuous of all the marine plants in the collection. My readers will recognise them, when I say that they