OLIVE COLORED ALG^E. 85 



thirty to forty feet in length. The cask-Hke air vessel 

 which may be eight inches or more in diameter, buoys 

 up this immense frond, which hke Milton's hero, lies 



' Prone on the flood extended long and large, 

 Floating many a rood.' 



Here the Sea Otter has his favorite lair, resting 

 himself on the vesicle, or hiding among the leaves 

 while he pursues his fishing. The stem which anchors 

 this floating mass of fronds is of considerable length 

 and elasticity, though it is no larger than a whip cord. 

 It is employed as a fishing line by the rude natives 

 of the coast." 



Dr. Anderson, of Santa Cruz, was kind enough 

 to send me a small typical specimen, sufficiently 

 large to show all the characteristic points in the 

 form and growth of the younger plants. Starting 

 from a many-pronged hold-fast, like that of the 

 Laminaria, is a slender stem not more than a 

 quarter of an inch in diameter. For two yards it 

 keeps this size, when it begins to expand. For the 

 space of another yard it gradually increases in size, 

 and is evidently hollow, till at the end it has at- 

 tained a diameter of one and a quarter inches, 

 when dry; it probably was something more than that 

 In the water. Then it is immediately and suddenly 

 irawn in, or constricted, and forms a narrow neck^ 



