CHAPTER XI. Sea-Weeds

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.