Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 August 1900 — SEA FORESTS. [ARTICLE]

SEA FORESTS.

Where Animals Roam Ainu. as They Do ou the Land. The sea has its vegetation as well as the land, and very wonderful it is to think of the forests of great sea weeds waving under the green waters. The weeds in the Saragasso Sea are so thick as to be dangerous to navigation. The Marocystis pyrlfera, a marine plant, attains a length of 500 to 1,500 feet, and is the largest vegetable production known. On the shores of California there are fields of this plant so dense that ships driven toward the land have been saved by it. The Lessonia, another marine plant, Is found on the coast of the Falkland Isles. Its stems, thicker than a man's leg, and from eight to ten feet In length, cling to the rocks, above high water mark, by means of fibers. Many branches spring from these sterns, bearing long leaves, which hang down into the water. Marine plants form vast submarine forests nt the southern extremity of America, aud are so strong nnd buoyant that they frequently raise large stones from the bottom. Myriads of animals and parasitical plnuts inhabit these forests of the deep.