Gulfweed

Gulfweed (Sargassum), a genus of seaweeds (Algæ) of the sub-order Fucacææ, of which two species (S. vulgare and S. bacciferum) are found floating in immense quantities in some parts of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. They are tropical plants, although sometimes carried by winds and currents to the British coasts. The frond is very long, and is furnished with distinct, stalked, nerved leaves, and simple axillary stalked air-vessels. The receptacles are linear, in small axillary clusters or racemes. The trivial name bacciferum, applied to one of the species, is derived from the berry-like appearance of the air-vessels. The gulfweed has only been found floating, but there is reason to think that it is at first attached to the bottom of comparatively shallow parts of the sea. It floats in large fields, or more frequently in long yellow lines in the direction of the wind. In crossing the Atlantic, its presence is regarded as a sure indication of the Gulf Stream, by which it is wafted northward and eastward. Where the Gulf Stream is deflected from the banks of Newfoundland eastward, and sends off its more southern branch towards the Azores, is situated the Sargasso Sea, 'that great bank of weeds, which so vividly occupied the imagination of Christopher Columbus, and which Oviedo calls the seaweed meadows' (Humboldt). The quantity of floating seaweed is often such as to impede the progress of ships. Multitudes of small marine animals accompany it, with fishes ready to prey on them.—The gulfweed is eaten in China; and in other parts of the East also it is used in salads and as a pickle.