due to the fact that the air over the earth being cooled and condensed much sooner than that over the sea, the heavier body of atmosphere endeavours to displace the warmer and lighter one. A gentle evaporation is daily taking place from the surface of the sea, by which the air becomes loaded with moisture, remaining suspended until the coolness of evening sets in, when it is deposited on the ground as dew. The water thus obtained from the deep is not pure brine, as might at first sight appear, but is freed from its salts by the process of natural distillation which has been undergone. Similar evaporation also goes on from the surfaces of the Ribble and Wyre, and it is doubtless chiefly owing to the Fylde being almost environed by water, constantly disseminating dew, that its fecundity is not only so great, but also so constant. The following is a list of the seaweeds to be found on the coast:—
MELANOSPERMEÆ OR OLIVE GREEN SEAWEEDS.
Tribe—fucaceæ.
Fucus nodosus Knobbed Wrack
" serratus Serrated "
" canaliculatus Channelled "
" vesiculosus Bladder "
Tribe—sporochnaceæ.
Desmarestia aculeata Spring Desmarestia
" viridis Green "
Tribe—laminarieæ.
Alaria esculenta Edible Alaria
Laminaria digitata Tangle
" saccharina Sweet Laminaria
" bulbosa Sea-furbelows
Chorda filum Thread Ropeweed
Tribe—dictyoteæ.
Dictyosiphon fæniculaceus Tubular Netweed
Asperococcus echinatus Wooly Rough-weed
" compressus Compressed
Tribe—chordarieæ.
Chordaria flagelliformis Whiplash weed
Mesogloia virescens Verdant Viscid-weed
" vermicularis Wormy "
Tribe—ectocarpeæ.
Cladostephus verticillatus Whorled Cladostephus
" spongiosus Spongy "
Sphacellaria scoparia Brown-like Sphacellaria
" plumosa Feathered "
" Cirrhosa Nodular "
