82 
LAMINAPJACEiE. 
IV. 
Fucacece, are of much larger dimensions. The number of species under twelve 
inches in length is very small ; almost all, when mature, exceed twelve feet in 
length, and when we light upon the real giants of the Order, the frond is measured 
by fathoms and not by feet. The ordinary Oar weeds, Tangle , Devil s-apr on and Sea- 
colander of the American shores, which are familiar examples of these plants, are 
frequently seen ten, twelve, or even twenty feet in length, with immense fronds or 
aprons terminating their stems ; but these are mediocre indeed, compared to some 
of their co-ordinals in the Pacific. The Nereocystis of the North West Coast is said, 
when fully grown, to have a stem measuring 300 feet in length, which bears at its 
summit a huge air-vessel, six or seven feet long 5 shaped like a great cask, and 
ending in a tuft of upwards of fifty forked leaves, each of which is from thirty to 
forty feet in length. The cask-like air-vessel buoys up this immense frond, which, 
like Milton’s hero, lies 
Prone on the flood, extended long and large, 
(And) floating many a rood. — 
Here the Sea Otter ( Lutra marina) has his favourite lair, resting himself on the 
vesicle, or hiding among the leaves while he pursues his fishing. The stem which 
anchors this floating mass of fronds, though no thicker than whip-cord, must be of 
considerable strength and flexibility ; and accordingly we find it employed as 
a fishing line by the rude natives of the coast. But great as is the length of this 
seaweed, it is exceeded by the Macrocystis, whose stems are calculated by Dr. 
Hooker* occasionally to reach 700 feet, while Bory St. Vincent attributes to them 
a length of 1500 feet. These are the longest fronded of the Order, and indeed the 
longest vegetables that are known. Others, as the Lessonice of the Pacific and 
Southern Oceans, though of less height have stems of much greater bole, and a 
habit that reminds us of some large endogenous arborescent plants, as the Aloe 
dichotoma or as the Dracaena Draco. These gigantic Algae have trunks of con- 
siderable diameter and height, branched clichotomously, each branch bearing at its 
summit bunches of long ribbon-like leaves. Torn from the submerged rocks on 
which they grow, these marine trees are driven ashore on the rocky coasts of the 
Falkland Islands in great numbers, and lie, as Dr. Hooker well describes, rotting 
for many a mile, in banks several yards in breadth and three or four feet in depth. 
The trunks, from which the leaves have been washed, resemble drift-wood, and 
“ on one occasion” (as related by Dr. Hooker) “ no persuasion could prevent the 
captain of a brig from employing his boat’s crew, during two bitterly cold days, in 
collecting this incombustible weed for fuel.” Another noble genus of the Southern 
Ocean (Echlonia) may be compared to the Palm in habit, having pinnated fronds of 
large size. One of the best known species, the Trumpet-weecl (Echlonia buccinalis) of 
the Cape of Good Hope, has a stem often more than twenty feet in height, crowned 
with a fan-shaped cluster of leaves, each twelve feet long or more. The stem of 
this seaAveed which is hollow in the upper portion is, when dried, often used in the 
colony as a siphon ; and by the native herdsmen is formed into a trumpet for 
collecting the cattle at evening. But perhaps the most curious plants of the Order 
FI. Antarct. vol. 3, p. 464. 
