112 THE GARDEN OF EARTH 



Not on such seaweeds as we all know. But the 

 whole ocean, down to a certain depth, is thronged with 

 immense supplies of another kind of vegetable — tiny 

 tiny specks of life, which were spoken about earlier in 

 this book. 



Do you remember the Diatoms, and their minute 

 ornamented shells? Small as they are, and invisible 

 to our eyes, they yet are true plants, real vegetables. 

 Being plants, they can only live where some amount of 

 sunlight is able to reach them. Deep below, where utter 

 darkness reigns, they cannot exist. But in the upper 

 reaches of the ocean they throng in hundreds of billions, 

 serving as food for untold myriads of animals, both 

 small and great. 



It has been curiously said in a recent work that : 

 " Diatoms are the pastures of the seas ; " -^ that, in 

 fact, they take that place in ocean life which is taken 

 on land by " the grass of the fields." And not Diatoms 

 only, but many other kinds of tiny one-celled plantlets 

 help to crowd the ocean. 



But how about lower depths still, the floor of the 

 deep, where all is darkness? Diatoms cannot live 

 there; yet sea-creatures flourish. 



As Diatoms die, their little bodies in tiny shells sink 

 by millions to the bottom, and there form a fine " ooze " 

 or mud. And the creatures that live on and near to 

 ocean's floor are believed to swallow quantities of this 

 muddy ooze, which is largely made up of Diatom remains. 

 So in this way they also may come in for vegetable 

 food. 



Only — once more — we cannot say with the sea, as 

 ^ Conditions of Life in the Sea, by J. Johnstone, p. 77. 



