APPENDIX. 



Note 1, Introduction, page 15. 



The following observations on the Sargassum will, 

 I believe, interest the reader : — 



" During the five or six days that we sailed through 

 this Gulf- weed, I hooked on board more than a thou- 

 sand pieces, and every one of them presented the same 

 appearance; the lower end of the stem had always a 

 whitish decayed appearance, just like a piece of tangle 

 which has been some time cast ashore, while the ex- 

 tremities of the branches were universally of a very 

 fresh and healthy appearance ; such being the case, we 

 can scarcely help believing that these remarkable plants 

 have existed since the time of their first creation to the 

 present period as we now find them — floating always in 

 this revolving Gulf-stream, and undergoing a perpetual 

 mutation, from the decay at one extremity and growth 

 at the other. There is nothing unreasonable in this 

 opinion, as sea- weeds are not like land plants, which de- 

 rive nourishment from the spot to which they are at- 

 tached. I found among the weed a great variety of 



