“Eaten!” cried Agnes, very much surprised. “Yes,” returned her father, “I assure you that this mid-rib, when stripped of its outer covering, affords a very important article of food to the poorer inhabitants of the northern islands of Scotland.” Agnes looked at the plant which she held in her hand. “What a curious plant it is!” said she: “here is its root; but it seems to have only leaves: has it any flowers?” “No,” replied Mr. Merton; “this is one of the cryptogamous plants; that is, one of those plants which have neither flowers nor seeds.” “No seeds!” cried Agnes: “how, then, are the young plants produced?” “By means of what are called sporules, which serve instead of seeds.” “And what is the difference,” said Agnes, “between these sporules and seeds?” “Every seed,” said Mr. Merton, “contains an embryo,—that is, a miniature plant,—which has one or two leaves, a root, and, generally, an ascending shoot, quite small, and curiously folded up, but still plainly to be distinguished, either by the naked eye, or with a microscope. Now a sporule has no embryo, and no traces of a plant can be discovered in it till it has begun to grow.” “I am afraid that I do not quite understand you, papa,” said Agnes. “It can hardly be expected that you should,” said Mrs. Merton; “but it will be sufficient for you to remember that cryptogamous plants have no flowers, and no regularly formed seeds.” [Illustration: _Fig. 9._ WINGED FUCUS. BLADDER FUCUS. TANGLE. ] “You will observe, Agnes,” said Mr. Merton, “that this sea-weed does not grow in the earth, like a land plant, but it is merely attached to any stone or other object that it finds in the sea, to which it fixes itself by means of its clasping roots.” Agnes now dropped her long plant of tangle, which, it must be confessed, was very troublesome to carry, and which was loaded with the sand that adhered to it as she swept it along the beach; and, instead of it, she picked up a smaller piece of what she found to be the common Bladder-Fucus. “This,” said Mr. Merton, “is one of the commonest of all the kinds of sea-weed; and its popular name is Sea-wrack. It is very abundant in the western isles of Scotland; where it is gathered in great quantities for making kelp.” “And what is kelp, papa?” Agnes asked. “It is the ashes which remain after burning the Sea-wrack,” said Mr. Merton; “and which were formerly constantly used in making glass, and also in making soap. Large quantities of iodine are still obtained from them.” “Oh, I remember that iodine!” cried Agnes: “that was the medicine that did you so much good when your knee was so dreadfully swollen.” “Yes,” said Mr. Merton; “it is now given in all cases of swollen joints; and it is said to remove even the goitres.”