60 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



proceeds to remark, that the " first notice of the Macrocystis 

 with which we are acquainted, is of so early date as the 

 middle of the sixteenth century, and occurs in a copy of 

 sailing directions for mariners, with the title, ' A Euttier 

 from the Eiver Plate to the Streight of Magelana,' and forms 

 part of ' A special note concerning the currents of the sea 

 between the Cape of Buena Esperanza and the coast of Bra- 

 zilia, given by a French pilot before Sir John Yorke, Knt., 

 before Sebastian Cabote, which pilot had frequented the shores 

 of Brazilia eighteen voyages.' — Hakluyt, ed. 2, vol. iv. p. 219. 

 In describing the above-mentioned route, after passing Cape 

 Sta. Martha, the trusty pilot's direction to the mariner is, 

 ' to goe S.W. by W. until he be in forty degrees, where he 

 shall find great store of weedes, which come from the coast : ' 

 and again, in pursuing the voyage, after entering the Straits, 

 ' If you see beds of weede, take heed of them, and keep off 

 from them.' " 



This wonderful plant, the most gigantic Alga known, 

 exists in vast beds around the coasts of Patagonia, Tierra del 

 Puego, and the Falkland Islands, in general growing in depths 

 of from six to twenty fathoms, and is of the greatest service 

 to the navigator as an indication of the presence of rocks to 

 be avoided by him. From a branching root, in the intricacies 

 of which small Molluscs, Crustacea, Echinoderms, and Anne- 

 lids nestle, arise small fructiferous bladderless submerged 

 fronds, and long slender stems, which reach the surface of 

 the water, and there give off hundreds of elongated elegantly- 

 shaped, jagged-edged fronds, varying in length from four to 

 six inches to one or two feet, each provided with a pyriform air- 

 vesicle at the base. These fronds, derived from one another 

 by a process of vertical splitting, spread out on the surface of 

 the water like so many banners, the manner in which 



