ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 69 



markable example of an assemblage of " social plants" of a single 

 species. On terra firma, the savannahs or prairies, or grassy plains 

 of America, the heaths (ericeta), and the forests of the north of 

 Europe and Asia, consisting of coniferous trees, birches, and willows, 

 offer a less degree of uniformity than do those thalassophytes. Our 

 heaths show, in the north, in addition to the prevailing Calluna vul- 

 garis, Erica tetralix, E. ciliaris, and E. cinerea ; and in the south, 

 Erica arborea, E. scoparia, and E. meditterranea. The uniformity 

 of the aspect offered by the Fucus natans is greater than that of any 

 other assemblage or association of plants. Oviedo calls the fucus 

 banks " meadows," praderias de yerba. Considering that the island 

 of Flores was discovered in 1452, by Pedro Yelasco, a native of the 

 Spanish port of Palos, by following the flight of certain birds from 

 the island of Fayal, it seems almost impossible, seeing the proximity 

 of the great fucus bank of Corvo and Flores, that a part of these 

 oceanic meadows should not have been seen before Columbus, by 

 Portuguese ships driven by storms to the westward. Yet the asto- 

 nishment of the companions of Columbus in 1492, when surrounded 

 by sea-weed uninterruptedly from the 16th of September to the 8th 

 of October, shows that the magnitude of the phenomenon at least 

 was previously unknown to the sailors. The anxieties excited by the 

 accumulation of sea-weed, and the murmurs of his companions in 

 reference thereto, are not indeed mentioned by Columbus in the ex- 

 tracts from the ship's journal given by Las Casas. He merely speaks 

 of the complaints and murmurs respecting the danger to be feared 

 from the weak but constant east winds. It is only the son, Fernando 

 Colon, who, in writing his father's life,, endeavored to depict the fears 

 of the sailors in a dramatic manner. 



According to my researches, Columbus crossed the great fucus 

 bank in 1492, iirlat. 28i, and in 1493, in lat. 37, both times in 

 the long, of from 38 to 41 W. This is deducible with tolerable 

 certainty from Columbus's recorded estimation jof the ship's rate, and 

 " the distance daily sailed over;" derived indeed, not from casting the 

 log, but from data afforded by the running out of half-hour sand- 

 glasses (ampolletas). The first certain and definite mention of a log 

 (catena della poppa) which I have been able to discover, is in the 

 year 1521, in Pigafetta's journal of Magellan's Yoyage round the 



