The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-12-05
PLANTS OF THE OCEAN.
Tales of seaweeds-strange Fish Lines
"Buckhorn" and Bladder Wrsck.

BOtanlSJS CLASS all SOEJS Oh I06 mower
less plants that grow in the water, and
that are commonly called seaWeed,
under. the general term of alge. There
are a great variety of these plants. Some
of them are like particles of dust; others
spread out to a size and strength to
compare with haWsers, though they
don't look much like hawsers.
There are many curious and interest
ing things to be told of seaWeeds, and
the number of people who would make
a study of such vegetation would be
much greater than it is if writer's on
the subject would give names to the
plants which could be remembered
without any intimate knowledge OF
Latin. Thus, to begin with the small
est plants, it is asserted that the Red
sea got its name from the prodigious
quantity of a small red plant that
spreads over the water under certain cir
cumstances A much more common
variety of the marine plants is found in
great quantities around the coast of the
British islands. In the streets of Edin-
burg you will see the vendors going up
and down crying, 'Dulse and tankle."
They carry great punches of the dull
red leaves, which are sold for food.
They are on sale in this country to a
limited extent, and the taste is not at
all bad. Usually you will find multi
tude of minute shell fish clinging to the
underSide of the leaf, which is greatly
liked The leaves are eaten either raw
or cooked as green's are in soups. They
are also used in place Of tobacco. The
smoke of a cigar rolled from dulse
leaves is pleasant and healthful
A very abundant sort of weed found
in various forms almost all over the
world is the bladder wrack 1t is dis
tingushed by its long arms or fronds,
as the botanists call them, which are
supported in the water by air bladders.
There is legend that a great many
years ago a crew of shipwrecked sailors
built a fire Of this weed, which they
found along the shore When the fire
had died out they found a dark cake
where the ashes should have been, and
in wonder carried it away with them.
A chemist found that the cake was
valuable soda, and formed a company
to dig pits and burn the weed to obtain
this soda, which bore the name of kelp.
The poor working people along shore
could not understand the new method
of handing the weed they used for ma
nuring their fields The thick black
smoke which rose from the pits was
foul, and the company, like modern
companies engaged in useful occupa-
tions, were brutally careless of the feel
ings of the people around its works.
Arrests and suits followed, and
learned counsel told learned jurists that
the suffocating smoke would destroy the
sheep and cattle of the neighborhood,
drive the fish from the coasts, and
create an epidemic among the populace.
But they were mistaken. When the
people got to know more about it 20, 900
people engaged in the Orkneys alone in
gathering the weed that came to be
called kelp, and the Orkney man in a
foreign land grew homesick when he re-
called the wild crags of his native coast
and the rocks that covered the beach
when the tide was low, for he saw pic
ture of old comrades stepping from rock
to rock cutting the long fronds of kelp
from their roots, while women and chill
dren, with song and jest and laughter,
gathered the harvest into heaps.
The rocky shores of the coasts of Eu-
rope are famous for their luxuriant
groWths of seaweed. One variety is
arms, or fronds, grow to a length of
forty feet When outer bark and CELIA
tinOus filaments are removed the frond
is found to be composed of single fla
ment like thread of silk, that grows
in a coil, forming a tube, the edges of
the filament adhering to each other.
This is uncoiled by the coast people,
and when braided up in a four-ply cord
makes fsh-line of great strength.
Do you happen to carry a pocket
knife with buckhorn handle? All, it
is of English make, too. 1t is a very
good knife, but that handle is as limo
cent of buckhorn as lead pencil is of
lead The rough sides, which every
one must admire, are made of pieces
/ of seaweed that is found, believe, ex-
clusively on the Scotland coast. 1t is
so much like buckhorn when cleaned
and the cut edges polished that experts
are often deceived. Another weed,
| that it takes its place in mattresses and
cushions beside the genuine article
/ In the mighty waves that dash on the
rocks on Terra del Fuego, after rolling
| across an almost limitless ocean there is
/ a kind of weed with stem that reaches
! the surface through 40S feet of water.
| 1t is bladder wrack. Under its leaves,
| Darwin says, there are numerous kinds
| of fish and biYalVeS that could get an
! existence nowhere else. Great fiocks Of
/ seagulls, divers and other birds subsist
/ on the fish, as well as seals and offers,
! while from the animals, fish and birds
! the wretched inhabitants of that inhos-
| pitable country gain living.
! Another curious variety of the south
ern seaweed is the gigantic Lessonie of
! the alkland islands. 1t has body of
! perhaps eight feet long and one foot in
/ diameter, a sort of log, from one end
of which trailing vines grow out in all
/ directions. The weed is often uprooted,
and adrift in the open sea the long
/ vines rool up into monster cables hun
I dreds of feet long and often two feet
/ in diameter. Should one of these get
1 foul of ship it is a tiresome job to
/ cut it adrift, for cut it must be. No
ship can make Roadway with such a
/ drag out.
/ a bladder wrack peculiar to the
( Alaskan waters rises from the bottom
/ in the form of a ribbon no thicker than
/ a sheet of paper, and perhaps two inches
/ wide. Specimens have been obtained
/ that were /, 1000 feet long. AT the sur
! face of the water a great clean crown is
I formed, from which leaves which divide
/ like antlers grow the length of thirty or
/ forty feet. There are big air bladders
/ it the bases of these leaves which form
/ the favorite resting places of the valua-
/ BILE sea. otter as lit watches its prey
swimming around below. Like the
/ filaments of Lucky Minny's lines, the
/ fibers of this plant are used for fish