SEA-WEEDS
PLATE XLV
THE BLADDER-WRACK (1)
I dare say that you would like to know something about the sea-weeds
which you may find on the shore; so I am now going to describe some of
those which you are almost certain to meet with.
First of all, then, and commonest of all, there is the bladder-wrack.
Wherever there are rocks on which it can grow you will always see it in
great masses. And after every storm enormous quantities of it are torn
off and flung upon the beach. Then the farmers send down their carts to
carry it away. For after it has been piled up in heaps for some time,
so as to allow it partly to decay, it makes a most useful manure; and
the farmers are only too glad to be able to spread it over their fields.
This plant is called the “bladder-wrack” because of the odd little
oval bladders filled with air which are found in the leaves, and which
explode with a slight report if you tread upon them or squeeze them.
[Illustration: PLATE XLV
1. THE BLADDER-WRACK.
2. THE OAR WEED.]
PLATE XLV
THE OAR WEED (2)
This is a very fine sea-weed indeed, for it often grows to a height
of ten or eleven feet. But you are not likely to see it growing, for
it lives in rather deep water, where it is always covered even at the
lowest tides. It is often flung up by the waves, however, and you must
many times have noticed its long, thick stem and flat plate-like leaves
lying upon the shore as the tide was going down.
The stem of the oar weed is often used for making the handles of
knives. When it is quite fresh, it is so soft that the “tang” of a
knife-blade--the part, that is, which is fastened into the handle--can
be forced into it quite easily. But if it is put aside for a few months
to dry it becomes as hard and solid as horn, and holds the blade so
firmly that it is almost impossible to pull it out again.
If you look at the “roots” of the oar weed you will see that they are
not like those of plants which grow in the ground, but are really
very strong suckers. For sea-weeds do not send their roots down into
the rock, as land plants do into the ground, but merely cling to the
surface. That is why they are so easily torn up by the waves.
PLATE XLVI
CORALLINE (1)
For a great many years naturalists could not make up their minds
whether this very pretty sea-weed was really a sea-weed or not. For
it possesses the curious power of sucking out lime from the sea-water
and building it up round itself, just as the polyps of the madrepores
and the corals do: so that when it dies and decays it leaves a kind of
chalky skeleton behind it. For this reason it was often supposed to be
really a kind of coral. We know now, however, that it is a plant. For
if it is placed in acid, which dissolves away this “skeleton,” we find
that a true vegetable framework is left behind it.
While it is alive the coralline is of a deep purple colour. It is quite
a small plant, growing only to a height of four or five inches, and you
may find it in quantities on the rocks near low-water mark.
PLATE XLVI
DULSE (2)
This weed is also known as the Dillisk, or Dillosk. I dare say that you
have often seen it, for it is quite common on nearly all the rocky
parts of our coasts, sometimes growing on the rocks themselves, and
sometimes on the larger sea-weeds. In colour, it is a deep, dark red,
and if you look down upon it on a bright sunny day, as it grows in
a pool of clear sea-water, you may see all kinds of lovely rainbow
tints playing over its leaves. The leaves or “fronds” as they are more
properly called, are about two inches long and a quarter of an inch
wide.
[Illustration: PLATE XLVI
1. CORALLINE.
2. DULSE.]
The dulse is one of the sea-weeds which are used for food. On many
parts of the coast of Ireland it is very largely eaten, both boiled and
raw, and some people are so fond of it that they have it for breakfast
every day.
PLATE XLVII
THE GREEN LAVER (1)
Another name for this plant is the Sea Lettuce; and certainly, with
its broad, bright green, crinkled leaves, it does look rather like a
cabbage lettuce. It is a very useful plant to keep in a salt-water
aquarium, for its leaves give off little bubbles of oxygen gas, which
help to keep the water pure and fit for fishes and other creatures to
live in. If you look at it on a bright sunny day you will often find
that the leaves are covered all over with these tiny bubbles, which
look just like little drops of quicksilver.
The green laver is found in abundance on most of our rocky coasts, and
is often boiled down into a kind of jelly and used as food.
PLATE XLVII
THE PURPLE LAVER (2)
This plant is very much like the green laver, except that it is purple
in colour instead of green. It is often boiled down into jelly and used
as food, more especially in Ireland, where it is generally known as
“sloke,” and is cooked and brought to table in a silver saucepan.
PLATE XLVIII
CARRAGEEN MOSS (1)
I do not know why this plant should be called a moss, for it is not in
the least like the true mosses, as you can easily see by looking at the
illustration. It is very common indeed, growing both in the pools among
the rocks and also in deep water. But it is not a very easy plant to
describe, for it varies very much in colour, being sometimes green,
and sometimes yellow, and sometimes purple. Like the dulse, it is often
used for food, being boiled down into a kind of jelly, and then either
eaten by itself, or mixed with tea or coffee. It makes very good size,
too, and is used a good deal in the manufacture of calico. Farmers use
it, too, for fattening calves, and also for mixing with the potatoes
or meal with which the pigs are fed. So that altogether it is a very
useful sea-weed indeed.
[Illustration: PLATE XLVII
1. THE GREEN LAVER.
2. THE PURPLE LAVER.]
PLATE XLVIII
THE SEA GRASS (2)
This is a very pretty sea-weed, which you may often find growing in
great quantities in the pools which are left among the rocks as the
tide goes down. When its long, narrow fronds are waving to and fro in
the water it really looks most lovely, and you can almost fancy that
you are gazing down into fairyland. And as the shrimps and prawns and
little fishes dart in and out among its bright green leaves, one might
almost imagine them to be the fairies!
The fronds of this pretty sea-weed vary a good deal in width, for
sometimes they are like strips of narrow ribbon, and sometimes they are
scarcely broader than hairs.
PLATE XLVIII
THE GRASS WRACK (3)
In one way this is the most curious of all the plants which you may
find on the shore. For it is not really a sea-weed at all, but is a
flowering plant which somehow or other has taken to living at the
bottom of the sea. You may often find it in the deeper pools just above
low-water mark; and you can tell it at once by its very long, very
narrow, bright green leaves. These leaves are often three or four feet
in length, while they are only about three-eighths of an inch wide; so
that really they do look very much like blades of grass.
The grass wrack is not one of the true grasses, however, for it has
real flowers, which grow in a kind of sheath formed by one of the
shorter leaves. And its stem creeps along under the muddy sand, and
throws up leaves at intervals, very much like that of the common
bracken. On many parts of the coast it grows in the greatest abundance.
There are large fields of it, so to speak, below low-water mark, which
afford refuge for all kinds of small sea-creatures. Indeed, if you want
to catch these animals for yourself, the very best way to do it is to
wait until the tide is quite low, and then to wade into the water
and fish about in the masses of grass wrack with a small net.
[Illustration: PLATE XLVIII
1. CARRAGEEN MOSS.
2. THE SEA GRASS.
3. THE GRASS WRACK.]
Great quantities of the long, narrow leaves of this plant are often
flung up on the shore; and when they have been thoroughly dried they
are often used for packing glass or china, instead of hay or straw.
Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
Edinburgh & London
INDEX
Acorn shells, 90
Anemone, smooth, 123;
anemone, daisy, 125;
anemone, thick-armed, 125;
anemone, snake-locked, 126
Anemones, sea, 121
Bladder-wrack, 136
Carrageen moss, 140
Chiton, 34
Cockle, 39
Coralline, 138
Cowry, 33
Crab, edible, 64;
crab, shore, 65;
crab, masked, 67;
crab, fiddler, 68;
crab, thornback, 69;
crab, long-beaked spider, 71;
crab, four-horned spider, 72;
crab, pea, 73;
crab caterpillars, 74;
crab chrysalids, 76;
crab, hermit, 77
Crabs, 58-64
Cuttle, 16
Dog whelk, 20
Dragonet, 6
Dulse, 138
Egg of the dog-fish, 13
Egg of the skate, 12
Flounder, 9
Foraminifera, 134
Gaper, 46
Gobies, 1
Grass wrack, 142
Grey top, 32
Jellyfishes, 115
Laver, green, 139;
laver, purple, 140
Limpet, common, 27;
limpet, key-hole, 28;
limpet, smooth, 29;
limpet, cup and saucer, 30
Little piddock, 50
Lobster, 81
Lug worm, 101
Madrepores, 128
Mussel, 40;
mussel, horse, 42
Nemertes, 102
Nereis, 103
Oar weed, 137
Oyster, 36;
oyster, saddle, 38
Painted top, 31
Periwinkle, 23
Piddock, 47
Pinna, 56
Pipe-fish, 7
Plaice, 11
Prawn, 83;
prawn, æsop, 85
Purpura, 24
Razor, 53
Sabella, 97
Sabre razor, 55
Sandhopper, 87
Sand screw, 89
Scallop, variable, 43;
scallop, radiated, 44;
scallop, hunchback, 45
Sea acorn, 118
Sea cucumber, 114
Sea finger, 129
Sea grass, 141
Sea mouse, 95
Sea snail, 25
Sea urchin, 111
Serpula, 98
Ship barnacles, 93
Shipworm, 51
Shrimp, 86
Smooth blenny, 4
Sponge, bread-crumb, 132;
sponge, grantia, 134
Spotted gunnell, 5
Starfish, five-finger, 106;
starfish, bird’s-foot, 108;
starfish, sun, 108;
starfish, brittle, 109
Starfishes’ legs, 105
Stinging jellyfish, 117
Sting winkle, 21
Sunset shell, 45
Terebella, 99
Tuft coral, 131
Wentletrap, 26
Whelk, 19
Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
Edinburgh & London
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.