The things we do!

The soil of the forest seemed covered with sharp blocks,
difficult to avoid. The submarine flora struck me as being
very perfect, and richer even than it would have been in the arctic
or tropical zones, where these productions are not so plentiful.
But for some minutes I involuntarily confounded the genera,
taking animals for plants; and who would not have been mistaken?
The fauna and the flora are too closely allied in this submarine world.
These plants are self-propagated, and the principle of their
existence is in the water, which upholds and nourishes them.
The greater number, instead of leaves, shoot forth blades
of capricious shapes, comprised within a scale of colours pink,
carmine, green, olive, fawn, and brown.
"Curious anomaly, fantastic element!" said an ingenious naturalist,
"in which the animal kingdom blossoms, and the vegetable does not!"
In about an hour Captain Nemo gave the signal to halt; I, for my part,
was not sorry, and we stretched ourselves under an arbour of alariae,
the long thin blades of which stood up like arrows.


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