18 THE GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



feet in length, and it is said to grow even to the 

 length of fifteen hundred feet. Its leaves are 

 long and narrow, and at the base of each is 

 placed a vesicle filled with air, which assists to 

 support its enormous length in the water. It 

 exists in detached masses, like green meadows, 

 in every latitude, from the South Polar Ocean 

 to the 45th degree of N. lat. in the Atlantic, 

 and to the shores of California in the Pacific, 

 where there are fields of it so impenetrable, that 

 it has saved vessels, driven by the heavy swell 

 towards the shore, from shipwreck. It is never 

 seen where the temperature of the water is at 

 the freezing point. This, with another species, 

 (Laminaria radiata,) also of gigantic size and 

 extensive range, forms part of a band of sea- 

 weed that girds Kerguelen's Island so densely that 

 a boat can scarcely be pulled through it. They 

 are found, too, in great abundance on the coasts 

 of the Falkland Islands, and also in vast fields in 

 the open sea, hundreds of miles from any land. 

 The colour of the Red Sea is said to be 

 owing to its sea-weeds. Dupont gives the 

 following statement : " On the 8th of July, 

 1843, I entered the Red Sea by the Straits of 

 Babelmandel, on board the l Atalanta' steamer. 

 On the 15th, the burning sun of Arabia awoke 

 me by its brilliancy, unannounced by the dawn. 

 I was leaning mechanically out of the poop 

 windows, to catch a little of the fresh air of 

 night before the sun had devoured it, when, 

 imagine my surprise to find the sea stained red 

 as far as the eye could reach behind the vessel. 



