A still lower and humbler method has been earlier described—that of simply dividing into half.
There is yet another way by which ocean-weeds increase, and it reminds one curiously of the gardener’s plan of growth by cuttings.
In rough weather, on shallow reaches not far from land, the waves tear quantities of sea-weed fronds from their moorings, and carry them to shore or to rocky parts, where they become entangled, and are held fast.
There, if later waves do not again dislodge them, and if other circumstances are favourable, the wandering fronds settle down, attach themselves, and become fresh plants. So in this case the waves act as gardeners, and make cuttings of ocean-plants.
While plant-life in the ocean is plentiful in amount and abundant in variety, it is confined within limits. By far the greater part of Sea-weed existence is contained in the Hundred-fathom limit—that is, within six hundred feet of the surface. Not many kinds, indeed, can grow in anything like as much depth as five or six hundred feet.
Sea-weeds in abundance are found on shallow shores, near continents and islands; on the zone between high and low tides; and on gently-shelving slopes beyond that zone. Floating unattached sea-weeds, of the type which belongs to the Sargasso Sea, may be anywhere, over the deepest depths of the ocean. These, however, are not found living and growing very far beneath the surface: and Ocean’s depths are without any kind of vegetable-life, except probably bacteria.
CHAPTER XVI.
CORAL ARCHITECTS
“Who layeth the beams of His chambers in the waters.”
Ps. civ. 3.
“And surges roaring from below.”—Dibden.