THE ALG^E. 479 



the scale, are so small as to be invisible to the 

 naked eye, except by the appearance they give 

 to other species on which they happen to be 

 parasitic in prodigious numbers. From these 

 microscopic forms, Algse are found, of all sizes, 

 on our own shores, up to thirty or even -forty 

 feet in length, an extent to which Chorda Filum 

 not unfrequently attains. This plant resembles 

 an enormous piece of cat-gut, and is, in fact, 

 known by the name of Sea cat-gut in Orkney, 

 while in Shetland it goes by the name of Lucky 

 Minny's lines, and in England of 'Sea lace" In 

 the southern hemisphere the marine vegetation 

 takes on a more wonderful aspect. A plant 

 described by Bory St. Vincent, is twenty-five 

 or thirty feet high, and has a trunk often as 

 thick as a man's thigh, which divides into nu- 

 merous branches. A marine plant, abundant 

 on the Australian coast, furnishes the aborigines 

 with instruments, vessels, and food. A trumpet 

 is formed out of the hollow stem of another. 



Some of these plants remain constantly 

 beneath the surface of the waters, their roots 

 firmly attached to rocks or stones at the bottom. 

 Others float on the surface, presenting the 

 appearance of green meadows, reposing upon 

 the ever-moving breast of the wave. Near the 

 coast of California these plants grow in such 

 thick masses as to have saved vessels from 



