28 



ACADEMIC BOTANY. 



A), which flourished ages before man appeared in the 

 world. 



49. The Wracks — Vareeks — are here (Fig. 17). Among them is the 

 Gulf-weed, the most ancient and renowned of sea-rovers. No one has 

 ever yet found it rooted. Its birthplace seems to be the Gulf of Mexico, 

 whence its common name ; but it is always floating, buoyed up by the 

 berry-like air-bladders which give it Its bo- 

 tanical names — Sargassum, bacciferum; Sar- 

 gassum from the Sp. sargazo, sea-lentils ; 

 bacciferum from the Latin bacca,\>eTry,ferre, 

 to bear. It makes great tracts, like meadows, 

 through which boats cannot be steered. One 

 of these is in the Atlantic Ocean, lat. 20° to 

 30° N., long. 20° to 60° W. of Greenwich ; the 

 other is in the Pacific Ocean, lat. 30° to 40° 

 N., long. 140° to 180° W. of Greenwich. 

 Each of these tracts is called a Sargasso Sea. 

 The one in the Atlantic was encountered, as 

 we know, by Columbus. The thickly-matted 

 tufts which form it have existed there from 

 immemorial time ; a line in Aristotle has led 

 critics to infer that the Phoenicians had found 

 this sea before his time— 384 B.C. Crabs and 

 other marine animals of species found no- 

 where else abound in it, making it a world of 

 its own. The Olive Seaweeds serve a thou- 

 sand purposes, as food, thatch, manure, etc. 



50. The Red Seaweeds — Rose Tangles — 

 stand at the head of the Order. They are 

 more beautiful, though less useful, than the 

 Olive Seaweeds. Among them is the little mossy Eytiphloea of the 

 British coast (Fig. 16, 4), here represented of the natural size. The 

 Dulse and Carrageen Moss belong here. In the 

 Bed Seaweeds the Oogonium is furnished with a 

 fine, hair-like tube which imitates a pistil ; this 

 hair is called Trichogyne, or Hair-pistil (Gr. trick, 

 hair). 



51. The Fungi include Moulds, Mil- 

 dews, and Mushrooms. They have no 

 stomata, frond, chlorophyl, nor starch. 

 They are usually parasites ; that is, they 

 grow and feed upon some other plant, 

 or upon animal substance ; this plant or _ 



substance is called the Host. They are (.Tomia ""cermu^, mag- 

 often hypogeal (growing under the earth) ; c°in'divWo ^iTxrgem: 

 hypophlceous (growing under the bark); "'»"°"- 

 or mdophyUous (under the skin of the leaf) ; often micro- 



-Fucua vesiculoaiis : 



Fig. 17. 

 a, conceptacle (tubercle) full 

 of sporangia; 6, air-vesiclea. 



Fig. 18.— Teast plant 



