S2 ROMANCE OF LOW LIFE AMONGST PLANTS. 



brackish water. Marine Algae float in the seas 

 throughout the globe, and possibly a great number 

 may still flourish, attached to submerged rocks, which 

 have never met the eyes of man. Altogether the 

 presumption might have been that Alg?e would have 

 been more numerous in species than even the fungi, 

 since they inhabit a medium which covers a much 

 larger area, and, in the Diatomaceae, possess facilities 

 for preservation, which no other cryptogams can 

 claim. 



Gigantic Sea-weeds. 



We cannot omit reference to the gigantic vegetation 

 of the ocean, which bears comparison with the " big 

 trees " of the land, and deserves a place amongst the 

 marvels of the vegetable world. The foremost place 

 should perhaps be given to the Giant Fucus, which 

 was first noticed in the sixteenth century, and has 

 since been referred to by all voyagers in the south. 

 Captain Cook says that the stems attain a length of 

 one hundred and twenty feet. That these dimensions 

 are considerably under the mark there is very little 

 doubt, though the report that specimens have been 

 measured upwards of one thousand feet is, perhaps, as 

 much an exaggeration. Still, it has been observed 

 that, provided the water be smooth and of sufficient 

 extent, there are no impediments to the almost 

 indefinite elongation of the upper part of a plant 

 which never branches, and whose growth is indepen- 

 dent of all below it, even of the root. In Hooker's 

 " Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of the Erebus and 

 Terror" it bears the name oi Macrocystis pyrifera ; and 



