MAETNE BOTANY. 115 



The number of living things of every sort, whose exist- 

 ence is closely connected with that of this huge bladder- 

 wrack, is astounding. Nearly every leaf, with the excep- 

 tion of those floating on the surface, is so densely covered 

 with corallines, that they impart to it a white colour. To 

 the flat surface of the leaves, various Mussels, Tops, Mol 

 luses, and Bivalves attach themselves. Countless Crusta- 

 ceans live on some parts of the plants. On shaking the 

 large tangled roots, a pile of little fish, shelled Molluscs, 

 Cephalopods, Crabs, Sea Urchins, Asteroids, handsome 

 Holothuriae, Planarias, and crawling marine animals of 

 every possible shape, is found. 



Under the leaves of this plant, Mr. Darwin also tells us, 

 numerous species of fish live, which would find food and 

 shelter nowhere else ; if it perished, the numerous Divers, 

 Gulls, and other fishing-birds, and the Otters, Seals, and 

 Porpoises, would also be destroyed ; and, lastly, the savage, 

 the wretched lord of that unlucky country, would be com- 

 pelled by hunger to double his cannibal repasts, and, pro- 

 bably, in his turn disappear from the globe. 



When three days from Cape Horn, large masses of sea- 

 weed, torn off by the storms, announce to the navigator that 

 he is approaching the Fire-land. " We succeeded," Meyen 

 says, "in securing one of these floating islands, which was 

 drawn on to the deck by the exertion of five men. It was 

 impossible to disentangle this enormous mass, and we could 

 only trace the apparent stem for sixty-six feet. The branches 

 were thirty to forty feet long, and as thick as the parent 

 stem, from which they depended. We estimated the entire 

 length of the plant at 200 feet ; the pear-shaped air-vessels 

 at the base of the leaves were frequently six to seven inches 

 long, and some of the leaves measured seven and eight feet. 

 On these floating sea-weed islands were a large number of 

 the most varying animal creatures, thousands and thousands 

 of Lepadse and Sertulariae, Crustaceans and Annelids. 



" The gigantic plants which the mighty ocean shelters 



