f •
FLORzV jVNTzVECTICA. [Fuegia, the
S'-“' " « ' ' " ' “ P“- “ of aU below it, oven
b o t n off' at r r " ' ' T T oft at tbe lower end, either 7fro"m' Tthe division of the frond by sea-anim«al's“, “tPhr“o“n o-h whose a«-'e“n“c“ v“ ‘t-hoe „h o t
mcreascs and the floatmg island it foms ililates, or from the impossibaitv of seeming ° he whole niass from the
^ o n of the vessel or the sweff of the sea. in latitudes w h e reL boat ran ho lowcrtl! a S ;
hose observations m natnra, lustoiy the ntmost reliance may be placed, states it to grow in eiriit ten and even
5 7 5 r 2 V o f '1 1 “ “"S « '“ ''“»«y 0“ f»'-1 a - gives
o b e t d ¥ L 7 ; ' M : “ " “i'“ 1 '“'-“ K-goeloo’s Land, where a(i the harhom.: are
H H i p i S
i i « ! *
stems as about 700 feet ’ ‘ ’ ^ive the total length of tho
r i t i r r , : * : - : “
. P ent tor their origm. Tl>ese are, however, questions which propose themselves to us in the closet oiily',
Falklands, etc] F L O llA ANTAllC TICA . 465
when the prospect of solving them is gone by ; and when they bnt add to the thousand regrets over lost opportunities,
the romembranco of which weighs so heavily on the mind of every naturalist, that the brightest prospects of discovery
in tlie fair future can never obliterate them.
So many interesting points are connected with the Macrocystis, that a book might be instructively filled with
its history, anatomy, physiology and distribution ; whdst its economy, its relation to other vegetables and to the
myriads of living ci-eatures which depend on it for food, attachment, shelter and means of transport, constitute so
extensive a field of research that the mind of a philosopher might shrink from the task of describing them.
We conclude with an outline of its dispersion over the surface of the globe, which is mder than that of any of
the large Algoe.
As already mentioned, the Macrocystis girds the globe in the Southern temperate zone, but not in the Tropics
or Northem Hemisphere, and this is a most curious trait in its history. We may first, however, trace the southern
ed-re of the belt which it forms, and vve are the better enabled to do so, because the limits of its existence, as a floating
pbnt, were observed in six different longitudes in the passage of the Antarctic Expedition as often between the
Southern Sea and the Southem Ice, within which there is no vegetation. The southera boundary of the “ Macrocystis
sea” is very much determined by the position of the ice. and the northem hy the currents and temperature of the
water. Thus, in the longitude of New Zealand, where open sea extends to the 65th degree, this plant is found as
far as 61°, thé specimens having probably been drifted originaUy from Kerguelen's Land or the Crozets, which
are the great nm-series for it in the Eastern Hemisphere, and from whence aU those drifting islets have been wafted
which occm- between their longitude aud Cape Horn. In the longitude of Cape Horn, 5 8° or 60° is the highest paraUel
it attains, for it has not been found amongst the Sonth Shetlands; further east, in the South Atlantic, its paraUel
is probably stiU lower ; tiU in the meridian of the Cape of Good Hope it is 40 degrees removed from the Pole,
being seen no further south than 50° 30'. There the zktlantic Ocean specimens are derived from the southem
extreme of America aud the neighbouring islands. Its northern range on the other hand is dependent, 1st, ou
the temperature of the ocean ; - f o r it neither enters the Tropics of the Atlantic, nor passes np the shores of Africa
or into the Indian Ocean ; whilst it does inhabit the whole surface of the Pacific Ocean and the west coast of both
Americas : 2ndly, ou the currents, for when north of the influence of the uuifomi westerly movement of tbe waters
ill the Antarctié Ocean, it is deflected with their courses and carried. whUe temperature aUows, to whatever
seas receive those waters. Thus, the South Polar- current divides at Cape Horn, one portion foUowing the west
coast of South America to Cape Blanco and the Galapagos Islands under the Equator, carrying the Macrocystis
with it. wliich then enters the cold waters which flow from the Arctic Islands of the Pacific, and over
whose entire’sm-face it is spread, reaching Kamtschatka, New California, and the zUeutian Islands: so that in
the longitude of Western America the Macrocystis ranges from the Arctic to the Antarctic circle. The eastern
b rancl/of the Cape Horn cnrrent passes between the Palklaud Islands aud Fuegia. conveying vast masses of this
sea-weed 200 mUes north ot the Falklands, as low os the 44th degree, and some even reaching the Plate river in 35=,
its noi-thcm limits in tho Western zUlantic. Further west iu the Autarctic ocean its distribution is less known ;
but since it does not occm fat- north of the Cape of Good Hope in that meridian, we may conclude that it ceases
about the 84th degree. With regard to the South zHrican habitat, it is lUificiilt to account for so vast a qiiantity
as the AgiUhas Bank exhibits, for these waters, 130 mUes iu breadth, flowing with a rapid stream from the N.E.
or Indian Ocean, Uterally swaim with Macrocystis, which possibly is taken up from the northem edge of the westerly
Polar ciin-cnt (which flows along the parallel of 43° S.) by the Indian (or N. E.) current in question.
Its northern limit in the Indian Ocean is not ascertained, but it Ucs probably sonth of a line diawm north-
cast from the Cape of Good Hope to zVustrnlia, upon whose western shores the plant is fouud. as also in New
Zealand, and on the coast of China to the north, to whieh sea it perhaps migrates from the North Pacific Ocean,
Kamtscluilka, &c.
Plate CLXIX., CTAX, Froiid of M. pyrifera, var. Jiu'uriam, of the natural size ; 1, thin slice of fructiij-ing
5 r