39S THE INHABITANTS Of THE SEA. 



the savannas of America, nor on the heaths or in the pine forests 

 of Northern Europe, is such a uniformity of vegetation found as 

 in those boundless maritime meadows. 



" The masses of sea-weeds," says Meyen, " covering so vast an 

 extent of ocean have ever since the time of Columbus been the 

 object of astonishment and inquiry. Some navigators believe 

 that they are driven together by the Gulf Stream, and that the 

 same species of Sargassum plentifully occurs in the Mexican Sea ; 

 this is however perfectly erroneous. 



" Humboldt was of opinion that this marine plant originally 

 grows on submarine banks, from which it is torn by various 

 forces ; I for my part have examined many thousands of speci- 

 mens, and venture to affirm that they never have been attached 

 to any solid body. Freely floating in the water, they have 

 developed their young germs, and sent forth on all sides roots 

 and leaves, both of the same nature." 



Thus the Sargassum seems to be the indigenous production of 

 the sea where it appears, and to have floated there from time 

 immemorial. Its swimming islands afford an abode and 

 nourishment to a prodigious amount of animal life. They are 

 generally covered with elegant sertularias, coloured vorticellas, 

 and other strange forms of marine existence. Various naked or 

 nudibranchiate mollusks and annelides attach themselves to the 

 fronds, and afford nourishment to hosts of fishes and crustaceans, 

 the beasts of prey of this little world. 



Similar aggregations of sea-weeds are also met with in the 

 Indian and Pacific Oceans, in the comparatively tranquil spaces 

 encircled by rotatory currents. Their rare occurrence on the 

 surface of the sea may serve as a proof of the restless motion of 

 its waters. Were the ocean not everywhere intersected by cur- 

 rents,- it would most likely be covered with sea-weeds, opposing 

 serious, if not invincible obstacles to navigation. 



The Red sea-weeds, Ehodosperms or Floridese', are by far the 

 most numerous in species, and undoubtedly the most beautiful and 

 perfect of all the algas. They love neither light nor motion, and 

 generally seek the shade of larger plants on the perpendicular sides 

 of deep tide-pools removed from the influences of the tides and 

 gales. They mostly grow close to low-water mark, and are to be 

 seen only for an hour or two at the spring-tides, during which, as 

 is well known, the deepest ebbs take place. To this group be- 



