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Turning from the animal to the vegetable world, we 

 find giants and colossi there which excite our wonder. 

 There is a sea- weed, the Nereocystis, which grows on the 

 north-west shores of America, which has a stem no 

 thicker than whipcord, but upwards of three hundred feet 

 in length, bearing at its free extremity a huge hollow 

 bladder, shaped like a barrel, six or seven feet long, and 

 crowned with a tuft of more than fifty forked leaves, each 

 from thirty to forty feet in length. The vesicle, being 

 filled with air, buoys up this immense frond, which lies 

 stretched along the surface of the sea : here the sea-otter 

 has his favourite lair, resting himself upon the vesicle, or 

 hiding among the leaves, while he pursues his fishing. 

 The cord-like stem which anchors this floating tree must 

 be of considerable strength ; and, accordingly, we find it 

 used as a fishing-line by the natives of the coast. But 

 great as is the length of this sea-weed, it is exceeded by 

 the Macrocystis, though the leaves and air-vessels of that 



