Show C cr 3 fron seaweed Sea veed ead produced by scientists is a crop that is unaffected fact d by drouth erosion or government regulation it is a general name given to a group of plants whose varieties are almost as di as all the rest of tt the e vegetable e kingdom varying in s size f from I 1 orn microscopic organisms to plants the size of a small tree they differ in one important re from other plants taking their nourishment from the sea instead of from air and soil they are freed from the necessity of being rooted in one spot moreover the difference in food requirements has resulted in profound differences in both the physical and the chemical structures from those of other plants seaweeds are usually rubbery rather than fibrous in structure they contain no cellulose the fibrous substance that accounts for about half of the matter in land plants instead they contain related substances of a gelatinous nature these seaweed gelatins gelatini gel atins and cellulose both are derived from sugar the various sugars are relatively simple compounds of carbon hydrogen and oxygen that the plants synthesize from carbon dioxide and water when a few sugar molecules of the order of a half dozen are linked together chemically the resulting compound is a dextrin the sticky stuff stud on stamps A joining together of still more sugar molecules forms starch cellulose in spite of its apparent dissimilarity to sugar is actually a compound of a thousand or so sugar molecules |