10 LETTERS FROM ALABAMA. 
for though it may be conjectured to have had 
an original root, a “local habitation,” at some 
remote age, no connexion with the shores or bottom 
of the sea subsists now, for it evidently shoots and 
increases as it floats, free on the surface of the 
waves. It consists of a multitude of well-formed 
leaves, with a rib running down the centre, and 
notched edges, set alternately on angular stems, 
w^hich bear a great number of little globular, berry- 
like air-vessels, about as large as currants, the 
office of which is to float the plant. 
But to a voyager glad of any source of amuse- 
ment, the Sargasso-weed is most welcome, because 
of the shelter which it affords for hosts of small 
THE SCYLL^A. 
marine animals. Fishes of various kinds crowd 
around and beneath it, for the sake of preying on 
the invertebrate creatures that browse on its leaves, 
or play among its branches. That curious sea- 
