88 ROMANCE OF LOW LIFE AMONGST PLANTS. 



the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and on the shores of 

 Australia and New Zealand ; and some few, carried 

 northward by the Gulf Stream, reach the northern 

 shores of Europe in safety. 



"Naturalists have been puzzled to account for the 

 ;, \ origin of the Gulf- 



1  



weed, and formerly 

 it was supposed to 



be altogether de- 

 rived from the Gulf 

 of Mexico ; being 

 torn ofif the shores 

 of the Florida reefs 

 and keys, and carried 

 to sea with the great 

 current. It is possi- 

 ble, and indeed pro- 

 bable, that the origin 

 of the present float- 

 ing banks may have 

 been partly of this 

 nature, but it is most 

 certain that the great 

 masses of the weed 

 that are at present 

 found floating have 

 had no such imme- 

 diate parentage, but 

 are produced on the surface of the ocean on which they 

 float. Whoever has picked up the plant at sea, on any 

 genuine portion of the bank, must have seen that it 

 was in a perfectly fresh and growing state, and, if he 



Fig. 13. — Gulfweed, Sargassuiii lacciftiur 



