Seaweeds and Leaf-green 



ing at latitudes of 8o° North where the water is never 

 much above the freezing point. At this latitude Kjellman 

 discovered no less than twenty-seven species, and most 

 of them in fruit. 17 Close upon three hundred species 

 of seaweeds are to be found in the Arctic and Antarctic 

 Oceans. 



So that if the reader is to picture to himself the sea- 

 weed life of the world, he must first clothe all the rocky 

 shores of all the continents and islands with rich sub- 

 marine tangle-forests extending far up into the Arctic 

 and Antarctic zone. 



Indeed the growth of these seaweeds seems perhaps 

 most luxuriant in the colder seas. As one approaches 

 the Straits of Magellan, the sea seems to be provided 

 with an inexhaustible supply of the great brown alga 

 (Microcystis pyrifera). Patches of it may be passed 

 every few minutes, sometimes being researched by 

 penguins or other birds, or as long trails bobbing up 

 and down in a curious way in the slow heaving rollers. 

 Some have suggested that this " kelp " may have the 

 honour of explaining the sea serpent, for a long trail 

 of it might be mistaken by an imaginative apprentice 

 for that shy and retiring creature. 



Macrocystis is said by one authority to be sometimes 

 300 feet in length, which would surely be long enough 

 for any sea serpent ! 18 



When one arrivesat the Straits andpasses through to the 

 Pacific Coast, the islands are very often surrounded by a 

 curious border, 100 feet wide, of this extraordinary plant, 

 which is surely the longest if not the tallest on the earth. 



Near Capetown, there are giant algae allied to our 

 laminarias which have stems as thick as a man's waist. 

 Even in the Faroes, the thickets of these brown algae 

 and especially laminaria are said to be about six feet 

 high and extraordinarily luxuriant. 



35 



