34 THE MARINE BOTANIST. 



the Falkland Isles and Cape Horn. One gigantic 

 species of Lessonia, described by Dr. J. W. Hooker^ 

 rises with a huge stem eight or ten feet in height ; 

 the ends of the branches give out leaves two or 

 three feet long and barely three inches broad, which, 

 when in the water, hang down like the boughs 

 of a willow. ^^ No person," he says, " who has 

 not actually seen it can form an idea of the amount 

 of life which is nourished and housed by one of 

 these tree-seaweeds." In length, all other species 

 of the tribe are surpassed by the Macrocystis, a 

 species ranging along the American shores of 

 the Pacific from the Arctic to the Antarctic ocean. 

 The stem is said to attain the astonishing- length 

 of 1,500 feet : as it approaches the surface, the 

 stem branches, and afterwards divides by repeated 

 forkings, until there results a floating mass of 

 foliage some hundreds of square yards in super- 

 ficial extent. 



