SEAWEEDS 



The laver is much used in Great Britain as an arti- 

 cle of food for a relish with roast meat. The Chinese 



use it for making soup. 

 It is an annual that is, 

 it lives but one year. 



GIANT SEAWEEDS 



THE largest of all 

 known plants is a sea- 

 weed. This seems strange 

 when we think of all the 

 great plants and trees that 

 are found growing on the 

 land. It is a queer-look- 

 ing plant, too. Let us 

 see how it grows. There 

 is a thin naked stem from 

 700 to 1,500 feet long. It 

 is only about one-fourth 

 of an inch thick. At the 



Porphyra, or Laver. 



end of this stem is a fern-like leaf that is about fifty 

 feet in length. Where it joins the stem each leaflet 

 expands into an air vessel as large as an egg. These 

 air vessels hold up the great frond which floats on the 

 top of the water. This plant is found on the Pacific 

 coast of North America. 



144 



