Editorial note — BOOK V

[Note 2: The Mare Sargassum of the ancients: also called Fucus Natans, and by the Spaniards Mar de Sargasso. A curious marine meadow nearly seven times larger than France, in extent, lying between 19° and 34° north latitude. There is a lesser Fucus bank between the Bahamas and the Bermudas. Consult Aristotle, Meteor, ii., I, 14; De mirabilibus auscutationibus, p. 100; Theophrastus, Historia Plantarum, iv., 7; Arienus, Ora Maritima, v., 408; Humboldt, Cosmos, tom. ii.; Gaffarel, La Mer des Sargasses; Leps, Bulletin de la Soc. Geog., Sept., 1865.]