CHAPTER XI
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.