274 THE WONDERS OF VEGETATION. 



or less vivid carmine. Some writers divide them 

 according to their color into three great sections ; the 

 brown or black, the green and the red. The first, 

 found always at some depth, are by far the most nu- 

 merous, and constitute the greatest part of subma- 

 rine forests. 



The green plants are superficial, and often floating. 

 The red plants are generally found in shallow places 

 and attached to rocks near the shore. 



Islands of weeds of immense extent, floating on 

 the surface and sometimes carried by currents to pro- 

 digious distances, are ofteH met with by voyagers. 

 Columbus encountered one on his first voyage to 

 America. These are formed of sea-wrack. But at 

 the bottom of the ccean are rich fields of tufted plants 

 and of shrubs, where the fish, the bird of the sea, 

 builds his water nest, groves and gardens where 

 the inhabitants of the ocean sport, woods and forests 

 which afford hiding-places for the timid, unarmed 

 denizens of the sea to escape from the assaults of the 

 monsters of the deep. 



One fact worthy of remark is, that submarine, 

 like terrestrial plants, attach themselves to certain 

 geographical limits. When w r e consider that these 

 conditions of vegetable distribution are heat and 

 moisture, and remember that at a relatively inconsid- 

 erable depth the sea in all parts has the same degree 

 of heat, we will be astonished to find so many varieties 

 in the submarine flora in regions that are contiguous. 

 It may be said, however, that the algae display the 

 greatest exuberance in temperate zones, diminishing 



