Sea-Weeds, Shells and Fossils (Classic Reprint)

As far as has been ascertained, the total number of species is about 9000 or 10,000. Many of them are microscopic, as theD esmids and Diatoms, others, asL essonia, and some of the larger Laminarise (oarweeds), are arborescent, covering the bed of the sea around the coast with a submarine forest ;while in the Pacific, off the northwestern shores of A merica, Nereocystis, a genus allied to Laminaria, has a stem over 300 feet in length, which, although not thicker than whipcord, is stout enough to moor a bladder, barrelshaped, six or seven feet long, and crowned with a tuft of fifty leaves or more, each from thirty to forty feet in length. This vegetable buoy is a favourite resting place of the sea otter ;and where the plant exists in any quantity, the surface of the sea is rendered impassable to boats. The stem of Macrocystis, which girds the globe in the southern temperate zone, is stated to extend sometimes to the enormous length of 1500 feet. It is no thicker than the finger anywhere, and the upper branches are as slender as pack-thread; but at the base of each leaf there is placed a buoy, in the shape of a vesicle filled with air. Although the worthlessness of Algae has been proverbial, as in the alga inutile of Horace and Virgil sprojecta vilior alga, they are not without importance in botanical economics. A dozen or more species found in theB ritish seas are made use of, raw or prepared in several ways, as food for man. Of these edible A lgoe, Dr. Harvey considers the two species of Porphyra, or laver, the most valuable.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

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