116 HANDY BOOK OP 



in the vicinity of Tierra del Fuego, attracted us as much as 

 the luxuriance of the vegetation in the forests of Brazil. A 

 single plant of the Meter ocy stis pyrif era, with its enormous 

 mass of leafy substance, covered as large a space of land as 

 those giants in the virgin forests of Brazil. The number of 

 .ower Algae, Sertulariae, Cellarise, and all the other animals 

 that have taken up their abode on the floating islands, ex- 

 ceeds in variety the parasitical covering of the trees in the 

 tropical forests. It seems as if in these desolate regions of 

 the Earth, where the calmness of nature is only disturbed 

 y terrible storms, the producing power of the planet is 

 solely displayed in the giant growth of the submarine vege- 

 table world." 



Extraordinary masses of gigantic sea- weed, Macrocysto3, 

 Lessonise, and D'Urvillea?, are also met with on the rocky 

 coasts of the Falkland Islands. Torn from the rocks and 

 hurled on the coast, they collect in the surf into immense 

 vegetable cables, much thicker than the human body, and 

 several hundred feet long. Many of the finest and rarest 

 Algoe may be discovered here, reminding the botanician, by 

 the similitude of form, of his distant home, while their sight 

 tells him at the same time that he is in another hemisphere. 

 The giant species of the Lessonise are principally met with 

 near islands. Their growth resembles that of a tree. The 

 trunk attains a height of eight or ten feet, and the thick-, 

 ness of a man's thigh, and terminates in a crown, whose 

 leaves descend like the branches of a Weeping Willow. 

 Submarine forests are formed by this plant, which, like the 

 Macrocystis, shelters an infinity of marine animals. 



Equally rich in gigantic marine plants are the northern 

 part of the Pacific, near the Kuriles, the Aleutian islands, 

 and the island-studded north-western coast of America. 

 The Nereocystis Lutkeana forms dense forests in Norfolk 

 Bay, and at New Archangel," in Russian America. The 

 stem of the plant, which is often 300 fathoms in length, is 

 not thicker than a ribbon, and terminates in a large stalk 



