PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 



HELD AT PHILADELPHIA 

 FOR PROMOTING USEFUL KNOWLEDGE 



Vol. LIII August-December, No. 215 



THE VEGETATION OF THE SARGASSO SEA. 

 By WILLIAM G. FARLOW, Ph.D., LL.D. 



(Read April 24, 1914.) 



On September 16, 1492, Columbus encountered masses of float- 

 ing seaweed in latitude 28° N. 58° W. as he was approaching the 

 Bahama Islands. This is the first record of the existence of what 

 is now known as the Sargasso Sea. Since that date many navi- 

 gators and travellers, who have traversed that region, have de- 

 scribed the general appearance of the sea and have attempted to 

 ascertain its limits and to explain the source from which the floating 

 gulf-weed was derived. Unfortunately, however, the earlier ac- 

 counts were often rather vague and to some extent conflicting and 

 even well-known scientific men, as Humboldt, have been too much 

 inclined to call attention to the sea as one of the wonders of nature 

 rather than to attempt to record the facts about it accurately. 

 Humboldt, for instance, described the Sargasso Sea as an area six 

 times as large as Germany covered with a growth of a single species 

 of seaweed which he regarded as very remarkable considering the 

 small size of the land areas covered by the growth of a single species 

 of plant. Although Humboldt's account is in a sense true, the im- 

 pression that those who read his account receive is misleading. 



The account given by Alexander Agassiz in 1888 was less sen- 

 sational. He says : 



PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC, LIII, 215, O, PRINTED DEC. II, I914. 



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