The chief scientific interest of the sea weeds, however, lies in their mode of increase, it is so totally different from that of any of the higher plants. The most simple method of increase is known as vegetative reproduction, it does not occur in every kind of seaweed and is nothing more or less than the growth of a broken piece of plant into a new individual. This form of increase is not unknown higher in the plant world; begonia leaves may be induced to send forth roots and grow into new plants, many garden favourites are propagated by means of cuttings and both these methods are similar to the breaking away and growth of portions of a seaweed; the garden plants, however, are assisted by man, the seaweed does its own work. The simplest forms of increase occur amongst those giants of the sea, the Laminarias or Tangles as they are often called. These brown seaweeds often attain enormous sizes, they all grow below the limits of low tide and appear to thrive best where the water is frequently lashed by storms. To see these plants at their best we must look down upon them in their watery home. There are spots on the North-Eastern coast of Ireland, where one may look from the cliffs upon a veritable forest of Tangles. There thrives the “Devil’s Apron,” short of stem but with a flat ribbon of a frond, which may attain a length of a dozen feet and a width of as many inches. There too we can behold the Fingered Tangle, with stem, maybe, six feet in length and a crown of large finger-like fronds, “Sea Laces” or “Dead Men’s Ropes,” with fronds resembling slender ropes, in length, at times as much as forty feet, ride gracefully on the ever changing currents. Safely hidden in this marine forest lurk queer fishes and crabs and shell fish. About the broad fronds of the “Devil’s Apron” sea mice and sea cucumbers disport themselves; the Tangle home is a paradise for marine life. Yet with all their vigorous growth they increase simply by liberating spores which give rise to new plants. In our chapter on Plant Life we described spores very briefly; we said that from a strictly scientific point of view they were not comparable to seeds but that for our purpose they might be looked upon as seeds for the reason that, by their germination, new plants were formed. All the spores of land plants are minute, they are carried from the mother plant to suitable spots for germination by wind. The spores of seaweeds also are small, but they are very different to the little wind-blown, land-dwelling spores. They possess a pair of the curious little whip-like structures we have observed in so many water plants and animals. By the lashing of these little whips they are able to swim about in the water till they find a suitable spot to settle down and grow into plants similar to those whence they came. On account of their animal-like movements they are called zoospores.