ty zy Yj tj L,Y B33 AG, iB, Ga ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY New York STATE COLLEGES OF AGRICULTURE AND Home ECONOMICS AT CoRNELL UNIVERSITY iia : mam 1G Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924000635395 SEA MOSSES Fig. 2. ‘t. CALLITHAMNION VERSICOLOR, Ag. 2. CALLITHAMNION HETEROMORPHUM, 4g. PLATE XVIIi SEA MOSSES. A COLLECTOR’S GUIDE AND AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF MARINE ALGA. BY A. B. HERVEY, A.M. ILLUSTRATED WITH TWENTY FULL-PAGF ENGRAVINGS IN COLOR, FROM PHOTOGRAPHS OF ACTUAL SPECIMENS. BOSTON: Ss, E. CASSINO, PUBLISHER. 1882. COPYRIGHT, 1881, BY S. E. CASSINO. @IAV5S4Y TO RICHARD HALSTED WARD, M_.D., ProFessor oF BOTANY IN THE RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, Troy, NEw YorK; IN THE NAME OF A LONG AND TRUE FRIENDSHIP; AND IN APPRECIATIVE RECOGNITION oF A NATURALIST, DISTINGUISHED ALIKE FOR CLEARLY APPREHENDING, AND SKILFULLY IMPARTING THE TREASURES OF A SCIENTIFIC SCHOLARSHIP, SINGULARLY WIDE AND EXACT}; THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. AVAIL myself of the last opportunity which I shall have for a word with my readers to add a point or two to what will be found on Z. 4, ef seq., of the “Introduction,” concerning the method of this book. I have attempted to make a book which should be a real and helpful guide to those, who, though not expert botanists, and not having, or using, any aids to a good pair of eyes other than a simple pocket magnifier, desire to begin the collection and study of marine plants. I have been obliged, there- fore, to resort to many devices for making the novitiate .3ee for the first time in these plants what is so \ vill. PREFACE. obvious to the practiced eye of the experienced col- lector. Among these is the particular thing which I wish to direct attention to here, viz.: the disarrangement of the species in the genera. It will be observed that while the genera have been arranged in their proper natural order, the species are often grouped in the text quite otherwise. The reason is, I have taken those species, in genera which contain several for treatment first, which, on account of their common- ness, or peculiar habitat or appearance, could be ‘most easily and certainly identified. From these I have proceeded step by step to the more difficult plants. Then again I have often found it convenient to group certain species together for the advantage of comparison in the description which do not always naturally belong together. You will therefore under- stand that, while the orders and genera follow their natural grouping, in the text, the species in the genera cannot be depended upon to do so, in most cases. I must add a single remark further on this general subject. “While the several sub-classes, the Green, PREFACE. ix. Olive Colored, and Red Alge, are grouped in the ascending natural order, in the text, the orders and genera in each of them are arranged and treated in exactly the opposite order, the first being the most highly, and the last the most simply, organized genus in each sub-class. I must take this occasion to express my large indebtedness to several fellow students of Algz, for help in making ready the material for this book. To the published notes, the private correspondence, and personal assistance of Dr. Wm. G. Farlow of Harvard University, I am under very many obliga- tions. I can only regret, for my readers’. and my book’s sake, that I could not avail mule of all the new knowledge contained in his Manual of New England Algz, which is now long overdue from the Government Press. Prof. Daniel C. Eaton, of Yale College, has been ever kind, obliging, and painstaking, allowing me to draw without stint upon his ample store of know- ledge, and his well-furnished herbarium. Mr. Frank S. Collins, of Malden, whose acquaintance with the marine flora of Massachusetts Bay is both x. PREFACE. extensive and accurate; Mrs. Maria H. Bray, of Magnolia, and Mrs. Abbie L. Davis, of Gloucester, who have long been known as careful students and industrious collectors about the rocky and fertile shores of Cape Ann; and Miss M. A. Booth, of Long Meadow, who has spent several summers of profit- able collecting on the east end of Long Island, have each kindly made out for me lists of the plants which they have collected in their several localities, together with notes of their special habitat, season of growth, and frequency of appearance. Dr. C. L. Anderson, of Santa Cruz, Cal., Dr. N. L. Dimmick and Mrs. R. F. Bingham, of Santa Barbara, and Mr. Daniel Cleveland, of San Diego, all well- known collectors and Algologists, have very obligingly dene- the same thing for the plants of their several localities on the Pacific coast. In addition to that, they have sent me many valuable typical specimens ‘from the rich and extremely interesting flora of that region. Nor can I forget the generous assistance which for years past I have received from that veteran col- lector in New York waters, Mr. A. R. Young, of PREFACE. xi. Brooklyn. I have the memory of many delightful excursions about the shores of New York Bay in company with him, who knows so well when and where all the finer and rarer plants are to be had. I am permitted to quote him all too seldom in these pages because the light. has been shut out —let us hope only temporarily —from -those eyes which were ever so keen to detect, and so appreciative in recognition of, the rare beauties of these humble, but exquisite forms. If this book shall be of any service to any in opening the way to a knowledge of this department of Botany, or shall contribute anything to the pleasures of summer life by the Sea-side, no small part of the merit must be accorded to our enterprising publisher, Mr. S. E. Cassino, at whose urgent solicitation the work was undertaken, and who has spared no pains or expense to make it as valuable and acceptable as possible. The plates for this volume are engraved from photographs of specimens in my herbarium. In out- line and color, therefore, they represent real plants. It is with no small degree of solicitude that I send xii. PREFACE. forth this little book upon its mission. The best wish I can have for it is that it may impart to its readers a tithe of the pleasure its preparation has given to its author. I may, perhaps, be allowed to hope, that, it shall communicate some interesting knowledge to many inquirers, and awaken in many appreciative minds an intelligent admiration for this part of Nature’s wondrous handiwork. A. B. HERVEY. TAUNTON, MASSACHUSETTS, May, ist, 1881. oc 6“ LIST OF PLATES. VIL. VITt. —_—0 BRYOPSIS PLUMOSA. ULva LaTIssiMa, var. Linz. CLADOPHORA ARCIA. ECTOCARPUS VIRIDIS. DasYA ELEGANS. POLYSIPHONIA VIOLACEA. POLYSIPHONIA PARASITICA. MICROCLADIA BOREALIS. POLYSIPHONIA BalLevi. RHODOMELA SUBFUSCA. DELESSERIA SINUOSA. NIToPHYLLUM ANDERSONII. LoMENTARIA BAILEYANA. GRINNELLIA AMERICANA, GELIDIUM CORNEUM. EUTHORA CRISTATA. PLOCAMIUM COCCINEUM. CALLOPHYLLIS VARIEGATA. PTILOTA PLUMOSA. CALLITHAMNION VERSICOLOR. CALLITHAMNION HETEROMORPHUM. CALLITHAMNION CORYMBOSUM. CERAMIUM FASTIGIATUM. CALLITHAMNION AMERICANUM. TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. THE SEA; ITS VOICES AND ITS FLOWERS, 1—3. THE PLaN AND PURPOSE OF THIS Book, 4—6. Scientiric Names For ‘Sea Mosses,” 6 —9Q.. GEOGRAPHICAL DisTRIBUTION, 9—12. CLASSIFICA- TION, 12——13. ‘TIMES AND PLACES FOR COLLECT- ING, 13-—17. COLLECTING APPARATUS, 17 — 18. MouNTING AND PRESERVING, 19 —31. METHODS OF Stupy, 31— 36. CLuBs AND CLAassEs, 36— 38. History, 39 — 45. CHAPTER II. BRIGHT GREEN ALGZ. Kry To GENERA, 46. Orders: SIPHONIEZ, 47. Zoo- SPORE, 49. CHAPTER III. OLIVE COLORED ALG. Key TO THE GENERA OF THE ATLANTIC Coast, 67. Key To THE GENERA OF THE PaciFic Coast, yo. Orders: DicryoTre#, 73. FucacEm@, 74. PHAOSPOREE, 82. Sub-Orders: LAmMINARIE®, 82. SPOROCHNEZ, 100. ASPEROCOCCE&, 101. CHOoR- DARIEZ, 103. MYRIONEMEA, 109. SPHACELARIEA, 110. EcrocaRPE&, 112. DICTYOSIPHONIES, 116. DESMARESTIEZ, 117. PUNCTARIEZ, 121. Scy- TOSIPHONEZ, 123. CHAPTER IV. RED ALG. Key to THE GENERA OF THE ATLANTIC COAST, 125. Key To THE GENERA OF THE PaciFic Coash, 130. Sub-Class: FLoripie#®, 135. Orders: Ruopo- MELEZ, 138. CHYLOCLADIEZ, 167. SPHAROCOC- COIDEZ, 168. CORALLINEZ, 183. GELIDIEH, 185. Hypne#, 188. RHODYMENIEZ, 189. SPONGIO- CARPEZ, 203. BATRACHOSPERMEH, 204. GIGAR- TINEZ, 207. CRYPTONEMIEE, 228. DUMONTIEA, 233. SPYRIDIEZ, 234. CERAMIEH, 236. GLOSSARY @ 5 ee BO Ok ee Bw we ee 298 INDEX OF GENERA AND SPECIES . « 6 «6 « + 277 I heard, or seemed to hear, the chiding Sea Say, Pilgrim, why so late and slow to come? Am I not always here, thy summer home? Is not my voice thy music, morn and eve? My breath thy healthful climate in the heats, My touch thy antidote, my bay thy bath? Behold the Sea, The opaline, the plentiful and strong, Yet beautiful as is the rose in June; Creating a sweet climate by my breath, Wash ng out harms and griefs from memory And, in my mathematic ebb and flow, Giving a hint of that which changes not. I with my hammer, pounding evermore The rocky coast, smite Andes into dust, Strewing my bed, and, in another age, Rebuild a continent of better men. Then I unbar the doors: my paths lead out The exodus of nations; I disperse Men to all shores that front the hoary main. Emerson. CHAPTER L aera INTRODUCTION. — Oe, aed On the surface, foam and toar, Restless heave and passionate aash; Shingle rattle along the shore, Gathering boom and thundering crash. * * e Under the surface, loveliest forms, Feathery frends with crimson curl, Treasures too deep for the raid of scorms, Delicate coral and hidden pearl D At ee = CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore, There is society where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar. I love not man the less, but nature more, From these our inteviews, in which I steak From all I may be, or have been before, To mingle with the universe, and feel What I can ne’er express, yet cannot al? conceal. Byron, YHO does not love the sea! For every mood of the mind, with some one of its thousand voices it speaks some answering tone. Those who dwell within the sound of its surf, or those who habitually seek its presence for inspiration of soul, or for rest and health of body, learn to love it for its own sake and for its sweet and comforting companionship. I know what those feel who are content to sit for hours 2 SEA MOSSES. beside the sounding sea, and watch the incoming and outgoing tides, as ‘The nightmared ocean murmurs and yearns, Welters and swashes, and tosses and turns, And the dreary black seaweed lolls and wags; ” or listen listless to the beating of the sleepless waves, as they go tumbling among the rocks, “With sobs in the rifts where the coarse kelp sh‘fts, Falling and lifting, tossing and drifting, And under all a deep, dull roar, Dying and swelling for evermore; ”’ or send their thoughts wandering around the world, cruising on every shore, with that white sail yonder which just now slid down behind the edge of the sky. Somehow, one cannot look upon the wide blue sea, and listen to its rythmic beating, without feeling that in some true sense he is looking into Nature’s soul, and hearing her great heart beat. For true it is, the mighty voice of Old Ocean plays a low melodious accompaniment to all the deepest thoughts that stir in the human heart, and makes the soul feel its eternal kinship with all the great forms and forces of the universe. But, there is another pleasure which “this great and wide sea” can give us, besides that which she offers to our fancy and our dreams. It is the con- templation and study of the exquisitely beautiful flora which she nurtures in her ample waters. When you INTRODUCTION. 3 know the sea and its flowers, you will know that she has almost a mother’s love and tenderness for them. It may seem to you a dumb, rude, bungling sort of affection, perhaps, for you will notice that she often leaves some delicate and charming flowers, far up on the hot sand or stones of the beach, all careless if they live or die. But you will also see that she is sure to come back to them again by and by. But, in the sea, where they live and grow, they have her constant offices of care and nurture. These most fragile fronded plants, whose silky branches are as fine as the thinnest cobweb, are handled and tended so gently, that not a fibre is broken or a cell misplaced in the midst of pounding waves, which, with a single blow would crush an iron ship to atoms. The boisterous sea is their home, and though it may seem rough and rude to us, it is never ungentle to them. If you come to know these plants, the beauty, deli- cacy, and grace of them, and their names, habits, and history, I am sure the sea will have an added charm for you. From every shore you visit you will carry away your hands full of them. And these garlands, in after years, will not only minister to your love of the beautiful, but they will also recall the blessed hours spent by the sea, and repeat in your heart again the joy of its mighty presence. 4 SEA MOSSES. In this little book I shall attempt to make you acquainted with what I have, these many years, found to be as interesting as they are beautiful. I undertake the work con amore. I remember how much I needed some convenient and competent guide when first I wanted to enter this field of knowledge and delight, and asked in vain for it. I have many friends who often go down by the breezy margin of Old Ocean. With this book I want to make them ac- quinted with some delightful friends of mine who will be there before them. I have spent many hours of rare pleasure in collecting, mounting, and studying, these simpler forms of Nature’s handiwork. I greatly desire to share this delight with the multitude of in- telligent people who spend weeks and months by the sea side yearly, and the not less intelligent multitude who make their homes within sound of its waves. The work is written for beginners only, and not for advanced students and specialists in this department of Cryptogamic botany. I am ambitious for my book that it may be just a “Porter” to stand at the gate of this wondrous garden of the sea, and open for those who come and knock. There was no such ‘book to do this in my day, so I had to “climb up some other way.” There were indeed the three ponderous quartos of Harvey, and two or three little manuals of English INTRODUCTION. 5 Algz, to be found in the American market. But neither served the needs, at once, of a beginner, and of a sea side rambler upon American shores. I said just now, “ for those who come and knock.” The “ Porter” opens the door only to such in any garden of delight, or palace of good. There must be interest enough to lead one to ask admittance. If you want to go in and see what is growing in this strange world under the sea, you have only to come and knock, and heed what the “Porter” says to you at the gate, and you may go in, and wander far and wide amid the beauties of this charming flora. To begin with, then, I must assume that you are willing to put a little earnest work into this study. What you achieve with some: cost, you will enjoy with more zest. But I shall attempt so to present the matter as to call for the least possible labor in attaining the best results. The descriptions of the plants, will, as far as possible, be confined to those points of appearance etc. which can be seen with the unaided eye, or at least with the help of a simple pocket lens. Especial attention will be given to point- ing out the particular’ kind of place where each plant naturally grows, and the season of the year when it may be found most abundantly, so that you will be able to search intelligently for it, and be all the 6 SEA MOSSES. more likely to know it when you see it for the first time. In making descriptions of the plants, I shall make use of technical terms only when common terms cannot be found to answer; or when, without the technical words, I should have to make circumlocu- tions which would be burdensome both to you and to me. The few words of this kind which I shall be obliged to use, and which are not defined in the dictionary, will be found in a Glossary at the end of this volume. I am aware that there is a popular prejudice against the use of any other than the common names for plants and animals. People think it is an affecta- tion of learning, a very silly pedantry, for these naturalists to go about and speak of the birds and flowers and ferns, and call them by such outlandish “jaw - breaking’? names, as they do. But I must bespeak your favor, to put away this prejudice, at least in respect to the “Sea Mosses.” If you study these plants at all scientifically, you will be obliged to learn their scientific names, and, for the best of all reasons, because almost all of them have no other. A few like the “Dulse,” Rhodymenia palmata; “ Rockweed,” Fucus nodosus and #. vesiculosus; “Trish Moss,” Chonarus crispus; and “ Devil’s Aprons” or “Kelp ” Laminaria ; have common or popular names. But va INTRODUCTION. 7 the people who have lived by the sea, have, as a general thing, cared very little for the “Sea Weeds,” and have deigned to give names to but a few of them. So it has been left to the botanist to christen them from his Greek and Latin vocabulary. For each plant he has provided two names, a “sur- name,” and a “given name.” The former answers to the name of the genus, and is the family name; and the latter is the individual name, or the name of the species. But he writes it with the generic or family name first, and the “given name” last. In his usage it is “Smith John,” not “John Smith,” as in common parlance. Thus Lhodymenia palmata and &. corallina, may be considered sisters, the first being the family name, and the last two the “ given names” by which they are known in the family circle. Do not be discouraged on account of these hard look- ing names. They are-no harder to remember, or to pronounce, than the names of your personal friends, Mrs. Eliza Watson Thompson or Mr. George Washing- ton Jones. When from affectionate interest and ac- quaintance, you are able to number these beautiful creations of Nature among your friends, you will find it perhaps easier to recall their names, than those of your more fashionable acquaintances. For you will “find that these names mean something as a personal 8 SZA MOSSES. description, which is more than can be said of most human patronymics. The names of plants are mostly terms descriptive of some notable fact in their appear- ance, habit, structure, place of growth, or fruiting. The significance of the names will, as far as possible, be indicated as we come to them. Before passing from this point, I must not forget to say, that you may be intelligently interested in these charming plants; be an admirer of their brilliant and varied colors, their graceful outlines, and their slender and delicate forms; may, perhaps, be an en- thusiastic collector of them, and more deeply in love with them than many “marble hearted” botanists are, and yet, never care anything at all about a scientific knowledge of them, or give them a single hour’s scien- tific study. Scores of people have for years gathered these “flowers of the sea,” and arranged them on cards, and mounted them in books and albums, who never knew them other than as “Sea Mosses,” and never cared to. You may do the same if you choose. In that case you will find this introductory chapter all the guide you will need. If you have not time or inclination to study them, do not neglect them on that account. To the taste that appreciates the beautiful in form or color, they are an endless source of pleasure, and asure means of cultivation. The INTRODUCTION. 9 plants of the sea greatly surpass all others in the perfection with which they retain their original beauty when dried and preserved in the herbarium. Indeed, some of them are more beautiful so, if possible, than when seen in their native element. Their artistic value will not be impaired by any lack of scientific knowledge on your part. And yet I must assure you that a more particular acquaintance with them will abundantly repay all your labor by giving you a more intelligent interest in them. And it will make you a better col- lector, even for the mere beauty’s sake, to know the habits, homes, and seasons of these beautiful creations. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. You will find it an important help, in many cases, to pay attention to the geographical distribution of the species, so as not to look for what you cannot find in given localities, and to search only for what may reasonably be expected to grow there. Our eastern coast is distinguished by two quite well marked floras. That long reach of land which projects itself so far into the sea, known as Cape Cod, marks the division between the two. It is probable that in former times, more than now even, that has prevented the waters of the great arctic and equatorial currents from mingling, and so has maintained a 10 SEA MOSSES. marked difference in temperature, in the two regions. At all events the floras of the two regions have im- portant differences, whatever the cause. I do not mean by this that no considerable number of species extend over the whole region, north and south of Cape Cod. But I mean that a considerable number, enough to make a distinct feature of the flora, do not extend either way beyond that barrier. To state it broadly, we may say that the plants growing north of Cape Cod are essentially arctic, and agree pretty well with the species found on the extreme northern coasts of Europe, and in Spitsbergen and Nova Zembla. In a small collection of some twenty species received from these polar islands, I find all but one or two of them such as I have collected at Marblehead. The individual plants, too, have a striking resemblance to those growing along our northern shores. The north- em flora is distinguished by an abundance of plants of the species Euthora cristata, Pulota plumosa, Var. serrata. Ceramium Deslongchampsit, Gigartina mam- illosa, Halosaccion ramentaceum, Fucus furcatus, Agarum Turneri, Laminaria longicruris, Alaria esculenta, etc. The flora south of Cape Cod is that of the warmer or temperate seas, and is distinguished by the presence of such forms as the “Gulf weed,” Sargassum vulgare, INTRODUCTION. ll Dasya elegans, the several species of the Chondriopsts, the Grinnellia Americana, Rhabdonia tenera, Hypnea musciformis, Champia parvula, Lomentaria Bat- leyana, Spyridia filamentosa, Collithamnion Batleyi and many others. I suppose, perhaps, that from one quarter to one-third of the species of each region do not extend into the other, or, if they do at all, then as rarities. I will note the geographical range of each species as I describe it. There seem to be no such differences in the flora of different parts of California. It is likely that nearly all the plants that could be found at San Francisco or Santa Cruz, could also be found at San Diego and Santa Barbara, a few rarities only excepted. It will be observed that this book undertakes to give an account only of the marine flora of California on the west coast, and of New York and New England on the east; though, it may be added, that this will make it practically applicable to all the coast north of the Carolinas on the one side, and to Vancouver Island on the other. I may also add that I have: included only common plants, such as the beginner would be certain to meet with in his sea side excursions; and I believe I have included nearly all of these on our eastern shores. I cannot say as much for the California flora. I have selected for special mention only some sixty or seventy species peculiar 12 SZA MOSSES. to that region, which is much richer in species than our own. But I have taken those plants which I judged to be the most common and characteristic, and most widely distributed, and such as I knew to be most strikingly beautiful or interesting. In respect to particular places, there are many of them on our eastern coast where the flora is rich and fine, and where thousands of people are in the habit of going every year. Nothing could be more favorable as places for finding and collecting splendid “Sea Mosses ” in great numbers and many varieties than such localities as Mount Desert, the Maine and New Hamp- shire beaches, Isles of Shoals, Cape Ann from Annis- squam clear around to Magnolia, Marblehead, Nahant, Nantasket, Newport, Martha’s Vineyard, and Wood’s Holl, Orient Point, and the shore at Coney Island, and southward as far as Fort Hamilton. CLASSIFICATION, Algze are classified by botanists on the basis of their method of reproduction. In a popular work of this kind I have not thought it desirable to enter into the details of this matter, because these organs can be studied only by the aid of a microscope; and, as I have said, I am writing for those who do not use that instrument, and I hope to be able to so describe INTRODUCTION. 13 the plants that most of them may be identified without its aid. Suffice it to say that the whole class naturally divides itself into three main groups, characterized in a general way by their color, viz.: Red, Olive Green, and Bright Green. These three groups correspond very nearly to their more exact classification on the basis named above. The lowest and simplest in their organ- ization, are the bright or grass green Algz, for example, the Ulva; next the olive green, the “ Rockweed” and “Kelp”; the highest, the red Algze. I shall take up each of these groups separately, and describe the several genera and species, in their natural order, following the arrangement adopted by Dr. Farlow, from. Prof. Thuret, in his list of North American Alge. TIMES AND PLACES FOR COLLECTING, Most collecting on our Atlantic coast, will be done during the summer and early autumn months. But I must remind those of you who live by the sea, or have it accessible at all times, that many things of the greatest interest and beauty will be missed if you do not go to the shore early. Our finest Cadz- thamnion, C. Americanum can be had in its rarest beauty early in March and even in February. The finest varieties of our Rhodomela subfusca are only 14 SEA MOSSES. to be found in the early spring months. This is true of many other plants. You will be surprised, also, to see what quantities of things you can find as late as November and December. Indeed, if you are | to know these plants thoroughly, you must collect them at all seasons of the year. Then you will know when they come, and when they go, and when they are in their greatest perfection. Those living and col- lecting on the Pacific coast are not fenced away by an icy wall, as we are on our shores during two or three months of our hard, inclement winters. So they can collect the year around. Dr. Anderson assures me that most of the plants growing there may be found at all seasons, though of course most of them are more beautiful and of more luxuriant growth during the summer than during the winter months. In general, there are three principal places for col- lecting “Sea Mosses’’ by the shore. First, from the mass of material which the sea throws up upon the beaches, and leaves behind it when the tide goes out. This will be your main re- source for getting the plants that grow in deep water. By many causes they will be loosened from their holdings in the depths, and will then float up to the surface and margin of the sea, and will be cast on shore. By carefully turning over these masses, which will be INTRODUCTION. 15 found along almost every sandy or pebbly beach, you will be able to get plants which could otherwise be found only by dredging in the deep water. And by careful search, too, among this material, you will find all the deep water forms. Second, upon the rocks and in the tide pools when the tide is out. You can collect living plants in their native homes here only. Of course no Algz grow upon the sandy beaches. You must, therefore, seek all such as grow between the tide marks, upon rocky shores. Put on a pair of stout rubber boots, and go two or three hours before low tide and search in every place, following the tide down to its farthest retreat. Many of the best things are found close down by low water mark, and some a little below that. These latter can be got best’ by taking advantage of the extreme low run of tides which comes about “new” and “full moon.” The ad- vantage of going before low tide, and following the retreating waters down, is that you are not so apt to get a drenching by the unexpected advance of a great wave, as when the tide is coming in. For, if you are close by the water’s edge when the tide is rising, busily intent upon getting your floral treasures, you will very likely find yourself suddenly soaked with brine, for 16 SEA MOSSES. “The breaking waves dash high On a stern and rock-bound coast.” In hunting through the tidal region for plants, hunt everywhere, and collect everything found. grow- ing, and when collected, like Captain Cuttle, “make a note of it.” If you cannot remember without, carry a small memorandum book and enter in it the habitat of each particular kind as you collect it. The tide pools, that is, the little basins in the rocks out. of which the water is never emptied, are the places where the choicest collecting may be had. And the nearer they are to the low tide limits, the more likely they will be to have abundance of vege- table life in them. But do not fail to look, also, under the overhanging curtain of “ Rockweed” which shadows the perpendicular sides of the cliffs and great boulders. You wil often find some beautiful plants there, as for instance, the P%lofa elegans, the Cladophora rupestris and other smaller “ mosses.” Third, by standing on some low projecting reef, by the side of which the tide currents rush in and out, you will see many of the more delicate deep water forms, all spread out beautifully,and displayed in all their native grace, carried past, back and forth in the water. Many of these, like the Foly- siphonig, are seldom thrown on shore in good con- INTRODUCTION. 17 dition, or if they are, do not long remain so. This therefore is by far the best place to take many of these plants. To do this you must be _ provided with some simple instrument for reaching down into the water, and seize them as they go floating by. I have found nothing more convenient for this than a wire skimmer, which can be got at any house- furnishing tin shop, tied with a stout string to a light strong stick five or six feet long. The water passes through the meshes of this with little resist- ance, but the Alga, with its delicate branches thrown out widely in every direction, is very readily caught by it. It will also serve to a limited extent as an implement for detaching plants from their holdings, which grow in deep tide pools, or in the sea, not too far below low water mark. For the rest of your COLLECTING APPARATUS you may have as little or as much as is convenient. A simple basket, or box, with a few newspapers in it, to wrap up and keep somewhat separate the different sorts of your collectings, will do very well. If it is convenient, have a case made with a half dozen or less wide-mouthed bottles set in it, each provided with a cork. The case should also have a compartment for storing coarse plants, newspapers, paper bags, or whatever you may use for keeping 18 SEA MOSSES. different species, or the plants from different locali- ties, separate. Then, as your plants are collected, they may be roughly sorted, and put in different bottles. But two or three bottles should be reserved for the most delicate and fragile forms. And as there are several of them which rapidly perish on being exposed to the air, the bottles should be kept partly full of sea water. The more delicate Polysiphonias, the Caithamnions, Dasyas, and some others will need this protection. I have found a quart fruit jar very handy. I‘ get the kind that I can fasten a string around the neck, so as to carry it suspended in one hand, which leaves the other always free to gather in the plants with. A jar whose cover goes on and off with the least possible trouble, is the one to be selected. The only disadvantage in using a receptacle of this sort for your collection, is that in climbing over the wet and mossy rocks, your feet may chance to slip and you get a tumble; then in your efforts to save yourself, you will forget all about your fragile glass jar, and will smash it into a thou- sand pieces upon the hard stones, and perhaps lose your whole collection. But two or three of these jars, carefully packed in a basket, so as not to be easily broken, would perhaps furnish as handy a collecting apparatus as you could extemporize at the sea shore. INTRODUCTION. 19 MOUNTING AND PRESERVING. For “floating out” your “Sea Mosses,” as it is called, you should provide yourself a few simple tools and re- quisites. You should have a pair of pliers; a pair of scissors ; a stick like a common cedar “pen stalk,” with a needle driven into the end of it, or, in lack of that, any stick sharpened carefully; two or three large white dishes, like “wash bowls; botanist’s ‘drying paper ;” or common blotting paper; pieces of cotton cloth, old cotton is the best; and the necessary cards or paper for mounting the plants on. You will use the pliers in handling your plants in the water. The scissors you will need for trimming off the superfluous branches of plants which are too bushy to look well when spread upon the paper, and to cut away parasites. The needle should be driven point first, a considerable distance into the stick, so as to make it firm, and allow you to use the blunt end of it in arranging the finer details of your plant on the paper. For drying paper, of course you can use common newspaper, by putting many thicknesses together; and a great many, no doubt, will do that. But sheets of blotting paper will be found much more satisfactory; twenty-five of them cut into quarters would probably be all you would 20 SEA MOSSES. use, and those you could easily take with you in. your trunk, What will be found cheaper and still more serviceable, if you are going to mount a large number of plants at once, is a quantity of botanist’s “drying paper.” It can be had of the “ Naturalist Agency,” 32 Hawley Street, Boston, Mass., for, I believe, $1.25 per 100 sheets, probably also of other sellers of naturalists’ supplies in all the large cities, on both sides of the Continent. It is a coarse, spongy, brown felt paper, cut into sheets, 12 x 18 inches, and has a fine capacity for absorbing mois- ture. For convenience, the cotton cloths should be made the same size as the drying paper used. Some collectors, who do not care to mount a great number of specimens at once, but want to have them very smooth and fine when dry, use no drying paper at all, but in the place of it, have thin smooth pieces of deal, got out a foot or so square and one-quarter or one-third of an inch thick; upon these they spread one or more layers of cotton and lay the plant on them and put as many more ovet it; the cotton absorbs the moisture, and the boards keep the pressure even and the papers and plants straight and smooth throughout. For “‘ mounting paper” each one must use his own taste. Many prefer cards cut of uniform size: they can be had at almost any INTRODUCTION. 21 paper store, or job printing office, made to order. Four and a half by six and a half inches, is a neat and convenient size. But if you want to mount several hundred or several thousand specimens in the course of a season, so as to have some to give to all your friends, and to make up a number of books or albums to sell at Church or Charity fairs, then per- haps the expense will be an item worth considering. In that case you will find it cheaper to buy a few quires of good 26 or 28 lb. demy paper, unruled, of course. This paper is in unfolded sheets, 16 x 21 inches, and will cut into convenient sizes for mount- ing any plants ordinarily collected. By halving it you have sheets 8 x 21, or 102% 16 inches. By quartering, the sheets are 8 x 10} inches ; halving these you get an octavo sheet 5} x 8 _ inches, which is quite large enough for the great ma- jority of plants. One half of this will give a sheet 4 X 5} inches, which will be the size most used; while the smallest plants look best on the half of these sheets, 23 x 4 inches. With your large white dishes filled near to the brim with sea-water, or, if you are away from the ocean, with water made artificially salt, take a few of your plants from the collecting case and put them in one of the dishes. Here, handling them 22 SEA MOSSES. with your pliers, shake them out and