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SEA MOSSES.
A COLLECTOR'S GUIDE
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY
MARINE ALG^.
BY
A. B. HERVEY, A.M.
ILLUSTRATED WITH TWENTY FULL-PAGF ENGRAVINGS IN COLOR,
FROM PHOTOGRAPHS OF ACTUAL SPECIMENS.
BOSTON :
BRADLEE WHIDDEN.
1893.
COPYRIGHT,
iSSi.
BY S. E. CASSINO
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.
63013
T
PREFACE
*31 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 /. 4, et 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
see for the first time in these plants what is so
viii. PRE FA CE.
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 Algae, 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 Algae, 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 myself of all the
new knowledge contained in his Manual of New
England Algae, 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 Maiden, whose acquaintance
with the marine flora of Massachusetts Bay is both
X. PREFACE.
extensive and accurate ; Mrs. Maria H. Bray, oi
Magnolia, and Mrs. Abbie L. Davis, of Gloncester,
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, ail 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
PREFA CE. xi.
btcroklyn. 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 sei-vice 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 soHcitude 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. IIERVEY.
Taunton, Massachusetts,
May\ isi, 1881.
LIST OF PLATES.
ate
I.
(C
IL
((
III.
It
IV.
a
V.
(t
VI.
«
VII.
li
VIII.
i(
IX.
((
X.
<i
XI.
li
XII.
i(
XIII.
a
XIV.
C(
XV.
tt
XVI.
ii
XVII.
a
XVIII.
XIX.
XX.
Bryopsis plumosa.
Ulva latissima, var. Linza.
Cladophora arcta.
ectocarpus viridis.
Dasya elegans.
POLYSIPHONIA VIOLACEA.
PoLYSIPHONIA PARASITICA.
MiCROCLADIA BOREALIS.
POLYSIPHONIA BaILEYI.
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.
v^-
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
•o<>o«
Preface vii.
CHAPTER I.
INTB OD UCTIOK
The Sea; its Voices and its Flowers, i — 3. The
Plan and Purpose of this Book, 4 — 6.
Scientific Names for " Sea Mosses," 6 — 9.
Geogr-'Vphical 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
Study, 31 — t^6. Clubs and Classes, 2>^ — 2>^.
History, 39 — 45-
CHAPTER H.
BRIGHT GBEEN ALG^.
Key to Genera, 46. Orders: Siphonie/e, 47. Zoo-
SPOREiE, 49.
XV,
CHAPTER III.
OLIVE COLORED ALG^.
Key • TO THE Genera of the Atlantic Coast, 67.
Key to the Genera of the Pacific Coast,
70. Orders : Dictyote^e, 73. Fucace^, 74.
Ph^ospore.^, 82. Sub-Orders: Lajminarie^e, 82.
Sporochne^, 100. Asperococce^, 1 01. Chor-
DARIE^, 103. MyRIONEME/E, IO9. SpHACELARIE/E,
no. Ectocarpe^, 112. Dictyosiphonie^, 116.
DeSMARESTIE^, 117. PuNCTARIE/E, 121. SCY-
tosiphone/e, 123.
CHAPTER IV.
BED ALGJE.
Key to the Gener.^ of the Atlantic Coast, 125.
Key to the Genera of the Pacific Coast, 130.
Sub-Class: Floridie^, 135. Orders: Rhodo-
MELE^, 138. Chylocladie/e, 1 6 7. SpH/EROCOC-
coiDE^, 168. Corallines, 183. Gelidie/e, 185.
Hypnes, 188. Rhodymenie/e, 189. Spongio-
CARPES, 203. BaTRACHOSPERME/E, 2O4. GlGAR-
TINEiE, 207. CrYPTONEMIE/E, 228. DUMONTIES,
233. Spyridie/E, 234. Ceramies, 236.
Glossary 273
Index of Genera and Species 277
I baard, 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 mj' voice thy music, morn and eve?
My breath thy healthful climate in the heats.
My tr>uch thy antidote, my bay thy bath?
Behol 1 the Sea,
The opaline, the plentiful and strong,
Vet beautiful as is the rose in June ;
Creating a sweet climate by my breath,
Waih 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 I.
hTMOnuVTION.
On the surface, foam and roar.
Restless b«tav* Tifd passionate QaMh )
Shingle ratii« along the snoic.
Gathering boom anti thundering crash.
♦ * #
Under the surface, loveliest fomis,
Feathery fronds with crimson curl,
Treasures iaw deep for the raid fit stormft.
Delicate coral ax:d hiddei! pearL
|-2_^|i^..^
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 steal
From all I may be, or have been before.
To mingle with the universe, and feel
What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.
Byron,
HO 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.
t know what those feel who are content to sit for hours
Library
N. C. State College
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 Hstless to the beating of the sleepless waves.
as they go tumbling among the rocks,
" With sobs in tlie rifts where the coarse kelp shifts,
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 \'oii
INTRODUCrrON. • .1
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. x\nd 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 iMOSSBS.
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 {:(?n 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
v/ay." There were indeed the three ponderous quartos
of Harvey, and two or three little manuals of English
INTRODUCTION. 5
Algae, 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 litde 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
l^ocket 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
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 pabnata ; " Rockweed,"
Fucus nodosus and F. vesiculosiLS ; "Irish Moss,"
Chondrics crispus ; and " Devil's Aprons " or " Kelp "
Laminaria ; have common or popular names. Eut
INTRODUCTION. 7
the people who have Hved by the sea, have, as a
genera] 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 Rhodymenia palmata
and R. 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 SEA 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 a sure 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 t\vo 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-
ern flora is distinguished by an abundance of plants of
the species Euthora crismta, Ptilota plumosa, Var.
serrata." Ceramiiun Deslongchampsii, Gigarthia mam-
il/osa^ Halosaccion 7-ame7itaceum, Fucus f ureal us,
Aganim 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 vulgarc,
INTRODUCTION. 11
Dasya eiegans, the several species of the Chondriopsis,
the Grinnellia Americajia, Rhabdonia tenera, Hypnea
muscifor?fiis, Champia parvicla, Lomentaria Bai-
leyana, Spyridia filainentosa, Collitha7nnion Baileyi
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 ^^.4 MOSSES.
to that region, which is much riclier in species than
our own. But I have taken those plants which 1
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 beachesj 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.
Algae 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 Algs, for example,
the Ulva; next the olive green, the " Rockweed "
and ^a<:elp"; the highest, the red AlgcX. 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 Algae.
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 Calli-
thamnion, C. A??iencajiti7n 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
Ihem at all seasons of the year. Then you will know
when they come, and when they go, and when Ihcy
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 princijoal 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 Algae
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
" 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 hfe 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 will often find some beautiful
plants there, as for instance, the Ptilota elegans,
the CladopJwra 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 dehcate 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 Poly-
siphoftid', are seldom thrown on shore in good con-
tNTRODUCTIOisr, Yl
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 APPAR.4TUS
you may have as httle or as much as is convenient.
A simple basket, or box, with a few newspapers in
i'., 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
1^ 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 tliree 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 botdes should be kept partly
full of sea water. The more delicate Polysiphonias^
the Caiithafrmiofis, 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.
tl^TnODUCTIOM. 1ft
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 blotdng 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, biit 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 ovei
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
iNTRODUCTlOM. 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 8x 21, or lolx 16 inches. By
quartering, Ae 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 1 inches, which will be the size most used ; while
the smallest plants look best on the half of these
sheets, 2 ?, 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
2^ SMA Mosses.
with your pliers, shake them out and ^lean their
of any adhering sand or shells, trim away parasites
and superfluous branches, and generally make them
ready for "floating out." Thence transfer them, one
at a time, as you "float them," to the other dish.
Then take your card, or your paper, selecting a
piece large enough to give the plant ample room,
and leave a margin of white all around and having
dipped it in the water, put it quite under the
floating plant, holding the paper with your left hand
and managing the plant with the right. Now float
the plant out over the paper, and draw the root or
base of it up near to the end of the paper next
your hand, so that you can hold it down on the
paper with the thumb of your left hand, the rest of
that hand being under the paper in the water.
Now slowly lift the paper up to the surface and
draw it out of the water, in such a way that the
water will flow off from it in two or three directions.
This will spread the plant out somewhat evenly over
the paper. But in many cases you will need tc
arrange the branches in their most natural and grace-
ful position and also take care that they do not get
massed upon each other, and make unsightly heaps,
while other places are left bare. They should be
carefully arranged so as to make the most beautiful
introduction: 23
picture possible. In some fine and delicate plants,
too much care cannot be bestowed in having the
remote branchlets all naturally disposed and spread
out. This final work of arranging details you will
do with your needle while you hold the paper very
near to the surface of the water with your left hand,
so near, indeed, that there will be just water enough
and no more, above it, to tioat tne delicate parts
which you are manipulating. Oftentimes it will be
found convenient, after the paper with the plant on
it has been removed from the water, to re-immerse
a part of it at a time, and re-arrange the several parts
separately. But all this can easily be done, more
easily than I can tell how to do it. A very little
practice will give you the " knack " perfectly. And,
indeed, these plants are by no means refractory, or
hard to manage. They will do anything you can
reasonably want them to, while you humor them by
keeping them in their native element. In fact, you
will commonly need to do no more with them than
to just help them do what they are altogether willing
and disposed to do themselves. For if you will let
them take on your paper the form and outHne,
which they have by nature in the water, there will
be nothing left to desire, for their color, form, and
movement, all combine there to make them the loveliest
24 SEA MOSSES.
and most graceful things that grow. When you have
put the last finishing touches upon the "floating"
process, and your " Sea Moss " is adjusted upon your
paper so as to be "a thing of beauty, and a joy
forever;" then you want to lay the paper upon some
inclined surface, any smooth board will do, to drain
away the superfluous water. Thence it is to be trans-
ferred, in a few moments, to the press for drying.
This is made in the following manner. Laying
down one of the above described sheets of blotting
paper, botanist's " drying paper," or boards of muslin-
covered deal, you lay your paper with the plant on
it upon this, the plant up. Cover the board or drying
paper all over with " floated " specimens in the same
way. Over all, and lying directly upon the plants,
spread your piece of muslin. Upon this, put another
sheet of the paper, or board, and upon this again,
a layer of plants, then a piece of the muslin, more
paper, plants, muslin, and so on till you have disposed
of all of your collection, or so much, of it as you care
to mount. Upon the last layer of plants i)ut a final
sheet of paper, and over all a stout board as large
as the drying paper. Upon this lay some heavy
weights — stones will be as handy as anything at the
sea-side. I should put on, I think, about fifty pounds
of them, if I were using botanist's drying paper,
Library
N, C. State College
INTRODUCTION. 25
which has a good deal of " give " in it. With the
use of boards unless there are a good many thicknesses
of muslin, it would not do to weight it so heavily,
or some of the plants would be crushed* beyond
recognition. I use the drying paper, and always
have two boards, one for the bottom, and one for the
top of my press. Then, when I '^ have made the pile
complete," I can put it aside in some convenient
comer out of the way, and set the stones to work,
bearing down on it, a business for which they seem
to have some conspicuous and weighty gifts.
Some botanists recommend that the drying papers
be changed in the course of five or six hours, and
the cloths and papers again in twenty-four hours.
This will, perhaps, be best, if one has plenty of time.
But my practice has always been to let them lie twenty-
four hours, and then give them a change of both
cloths and papers, being careful in removing the
cloths, so as not to lift the plants from the mounting
paper.
The second time in the press they should be
subject to a harder pressure, seventy-five ' or one
hundred pounds of stone being not too much. In
twenty-four hours more most of them will be quite
dry, and ready to be put into your herbarium, album,
or whatever you use for the final disposition of them.
26 SEA MOSSES.
Those that are not perfectly dry should be put back
in the press with dry papers and cloths for another
day's stay.
When the plant is perfectly dry, and removed
from the press, you should, before putting it away and
forgetting these facts, write on the back of the paper
the exact date and place of collecting.
People often ask me what I use to make the plants
stick so firmly to the paper, supposing, evidently that
it is necessary to have some kind of gum or mucilage
for that purpose. I have to answer that I have for
most of them to use nothing whatever ; that there is
sufficient gelatinous matter in the body of the plant to
make it perfectly adhere to the paper without other
aid. And the reason for putting the muslin over the
plants in the process of pressing and drying, is that
they may not stick to the drying paper which is laid
above them, the muslin not adhering to the plants ai
all, except in some few cases.
But a considerable number of the ''Sea Mosses
do not adhere to paper well. They either have not
gelatinous matter enough in them, or will not give
it out to glue their bodies to the paper. Various
devices are resorted to in these cases. Sometimes
the plant,after being dried in the press in the usual way,
is simply strapped down with slips of gummed paper
INTRODUCTION. 27
Sometimes they are fastened down with some kind of
adhesive substance, after being dried, gum tragacanth
being the best for this. Others take them and float
them out a second time in skimmed milk, and after
wiping off the milk from the paper and plants, except
directly under the plants, put them in the press to dry
again, when, it is said, they stay. I have never tried
this method. A friend of mine, who is famous for the
artistic way in which she always " lays out " her " Sea
Mosses," tells me that for these forms which lack what
the Phrenologist might call " Adhesiveness," she prepares
from the " Irish Moss," Chondrus crispus, a semi-
fluid paste, into which she dips them before putting
them on paper, and then carefully removes all of it
from the paper and plant, except what is between the
two, and then puts them in the press. By this means,
they are made to stick, " like the paper upon the
wall."
In preparing the coarser " Rockweed " and "Kelp"
for the herbarium, another method will have to be
pursued. These will almost all turn very dark, or
quite black, in the process of drying. I am accus-
tomed to treat them according to the following
method : Taking them home, I spread them out
in some shaded place and let them lie for a few
hours, perhaps twenty-four, perhaps less or more.
28 SEA MOSSES.
until most of the water in them has evaporated,
but not till they have become hard, stiff and brittle.
Then I put them between sheets of drying paper
and lay them in the press, and keep them there
until the process of drying is complete. A little
practice will be the only way by which you will
learn how to tell if they have been dried long
enough in the open air. If you find them inclined
to mould while kept in the press, you may be sure
they are not dry enough ; throw them away and get
some new ones.
It is sometimes desirable to keep the treasures
we have gathered from the sea unmounted, that we
may carry them away to await a more convenient
season for floating them out, or that we may send
them to some friend or correspondent on the other
side of the continent or beyond the seas. It is,
therefore, fortunate that all but the more delicate
and perishable of these plants may be dried rough ;
rolled up, and kept any length of time ; transported
round the world ; and then, when put in water
again, will come out in half an hour, as fresh and
bright and supple and graceful as they were when
taken from their briny home. The friend just
now referred to assures me that even the Callithavi-
fiia, DasycB, and the most delicate Poly sipho nice, and
INTRODUCTION. 29
such like plants, may be so treated, by first shaking
the water out of them and then thoroughly mingling
them with dry sea sand, and drying them rough i]i the
usual way. She says the sand will adhere to the
most delicate fibres and ramuli of the plant in such
a way as to keep them separate and prevent their
getting glued together. Then when they are after-
wards soaked out, the sand will be disengaged and
the plant left as good as ever it was. Perhaps I
ought to suggest that " soaking out " should always
be done with salt water, unless you know you
have only those plants that fresh water will not hurt.
When I have had specimens of the " Rockwecd " or
'•'Kelp" sent me "rough dried," I have found it
best to prepare them for mounting, not by immers-
ing them in water, and so getting a great quantity
of moisture into them, which would have to be ex-
pelled afterwards with no little trouble, but by wrap-
ping them about with wet towels ; from these they
would imbibe enough dampness to be manageable,
but not enough to make them troublesome.
Before taking leave of this part of my subject, I
must permit myself to add a word in regard to a
point which botanists commonly think too little about,
viz : the display of taste in the mounting of their
plants. To the mere botanist a plant is a specimen
30 SEA MOSSES.
of a given genus and species, interesting wholly ror
that fact. If it is a full gro\^Ti typical form with
fruit, all the better. Now all are not botanists.
Most of those who will read these pages will have
an interest in these plants to which the scientific
interest will be secondary. I want to say then to
them : look for the best things, get the whole
plant when you can, but get and preserve the
most perfect and beautiful plants. It is the rule
with the botanist to put but one species on each
paper or card; I certainly advise disregarding this rule,
unless you are mounting for scientific purposes altogether
or chiefly. With the numberless shades of red which
one group of ''Sea Mosses" will give you, with the
various kinds of green which the other two will
present, you will have opportunity to display all the
taste and skill you are master of For in combining
several different colors and forms on the same
paper, you may often produce the most brilliant
results. A little practice will soon make you able to
handle two or three plants at the same time in
" floating them out," almost as readily as you man-
age one. Then again, you wiU soon find it possible
with some of the more slender plants to work out
interesting and beautiful '' designs " in the same way.
Initial letters, even monograms, may not be beyond
tiSTTR Ob UCTION. i 1
your reach with a httle care and practice. Let the
"Sea Mosses" contribute to the cultivation of every
faculty, and all possible means of pleasure for you.
Foi preserving your treasures after they are neatly
mounted, pressed and dried, you have two courses
open to you. You can take care of them as the
botanist does, by arranging them systematically in a
herbarium, with covers of stout Manilla paper folded
lo?, X 1 6?, inches for each genus, and the species
separated by white sheets or thinner covers; or you
can provide yourself with blank books, made for the
purpose, having the leaves cut to fit the sizes of
paper or card which you mount your plants on, so
as to shp the corners of the cards into the cuts.
It is well in that case to provide a book with
leaves large enough to hold two or four cards each.
By following the directions here given, I cannot
doubt you will soon become a successful collector,
and an expert in mounting and preserving ''Sea
Mosses."
METHODS OF STUDY.
Having now the book as you go to the sea shore,
the question you are most likely to ask is : " How
shall I use it, so as to make it a true and helpful
guide in learning about these plants?" I will try to
tell you in a few words. Most of the descriptionb;
ii'2 SEA MOSSE3.
are ^vritten from herbarium specimens, and describe
them as they appear spread out on paper. And yet
where there are characteristic points to be seen when
the plant is found growing in its native element, they
are mentioned. You will therefore find it particularly
serviceable in identifying mounted specimens. And
knowing these, you will have little trouble in recogniz-
ing them living. But the important question is, how
shall you bring the book and the plant together, so
as to make the one guide the learner to the other.
First of all by paying careful attention to what the
book says, for in every instance it puts the emphasis
of its description upon the distinguishing mark of the
species. In the next place, use your eyes in looking
at the plant, and use your powers of mental observation.
Do not be of those who "having eyes see not." Now
there are, as I conceive, two ways of bringing the
book and plant together. The first is by taking a
plant and hunting up its description and name in
the book. You have two ways for doing this : first,
see if the plant in question is figured in any of the
plates ; if so, its name is there and it will be easy to
find the descripdon. If you do not find it figured,
see if you do not find some plant figured which is
near enough like the one you are studying to be a
brother or cousin to it. If you do, that will give you
tiSTTRODUCTiOJ^, 33
the name ot the genus. Go there, and among the
species you will find the plant in question. Suppose,
for example, that you have a frond of the Ptilota
elegans under observation, you will not find that in
the plates ; but you will find a beautiful copy of a
Ptilota plit77iosa var. serrata, which you will see
much resembles your plant, but is not it. This will
lead you to the right genus, and then you will soon
have the thing settled.
Again, you will find " keys " at the head of all the
great divisions of the book, which if carefully used,
will lead you easily to the genus you are in search of,
and once there you will readily find the species sought.
Suppose, for example, you find a mass of curled and
kinky wool-like, green " Sea Moss," floating on
the tide or entangled with Algae on the rocks ; looking
at it carefully till you observe that it is a simple un-
branched thread of green, you turn to the "key" for
Green Algae ; the frond is not membranaceous, so you
will not find it in the first group. It is filiform, or
thread-like, therefore you will find it under one or the
other of the sub-division of this group. It is un-
branched, so you are sure to find it in the first
division, for there you read, "Frond unbranched,
sometimes attached straight and single, sometimes float-
ing, kinked and matted like wool," which is an account
U ^BA MOSSES.
of the plant you are making inquiries about, and you
find that these plants are in the genus Chcstomorpha.
Turning now to that, you will find an account of
the plant, such that you will not doubt you have
before you C. tortuosa.
A second way of making the book and the plant
meet is to select a few common plants that the book says
may be found anywhere, and carefully noting the
description, and especially its habitat, with the best
image you can form of it in your mind, go to the
places where it ought to grow and there search for it
till you find it. For example, you will read in the
book that the Polysiphonia fastigiata grows upon the
ends of Fucus nodosiis like little bn.Vvn or black balls
as big as a walnut. Now go down and find some o
this FuciLs and search till you find some with its
parasite on it. You will read that Ptilota elega?is just
now referred to, grows common on the perpendicular
sides of cliffs and large rocks, under the curtain of
the overhanging " Rockweed." Go there and hunt til]
you find it. You are told that many plants of the
species Cystoclonium purpurascens have httle curling
tendril-like branches which twine around other plants ;
go down to the shore and turn over the mass
which the retreating tide has left, till you find
X)me specimens of it, and you will not have to search
nvrnoDUCTioN'. i'
long. In this way you may find a great many of
the common forms and easily identify them *' by
the book."
In making your beginning in these studies, take
the easiest first ; those that are commonest and have
easily distinguished marks. From the more easy pro-
ceed step by step to the more difficult. Do not spend
unnecessary care and labor in trying to make out
difficult cases. Put them aside for the present.
When you have had more practice it will be easier
for you.
Again, you may presume a little on the good
nature and kindness of botanists, and especially of
Algologists, and send your difficult plants to them to
nanye for you. I have often done such sendee for
people. I thus try to repay the kindness and pa-
tience with which my footsteps were guided, when I
first set out in this path, by many far more distin-
guished botanists than I ever expect to be. I have
not a little indebtedness of this kind still unliqui-
dated, as I trust some of my readers will take the
liberty of finding out.
Still another way to get help, is to get some
Algologist to spare . you out of his duplicates, by
exchange or purchase, some of the forms which you
are inquiring about, and thus have something authentic
,iC> SEA MOSSES.
for comparison. You would have very little difficulty
then in fixing the place and name of your own
plant.
CLUBS AND CLASSES.
Supplementary to the subject presented in the
last section, a few words on the formation of Clubs
and Classes for the collection, mounting, and study,
of " Sea Mosses," may be said. The many advantages
of associated over solitary action is everywhere re-
cognized. Everybody knows that in any undertaking
where half a dozen people can be engaged together,
more interest, enthusiasm, pleasure, and profit, can
be derived than where one works all alone. So I
want to recommend that when you go to the sea
shore with your friends, or go among strangers and
Qiake acquaintances and friends at hotels, boarding-
houses, or " camps," anywhere indeed, where two or
three, or half a dozen, intelligent persons are col-
lected, you set about organizing a " Sea Moss Club."
It will not take much talk or enthusiasm on your
part to convince some of them at least, that collect-
ing and mounting these " things of beauty " will be
a very pleasant and engaging way of spending tiie
leisure hours of a summer sea-side vacation. When
it is practicable, each one should be armed with a
copy of this book, as the best " Collector's Guide."
iMTRODUCtlOM. 37
You will need no formal organization perhaps, or if
you want to have a name for your extemporized society,
call it after some eminent Botanist. If one of your
number has had experience, or is more wise than the
rest in such things, let him be appointed your leader
or director, and if you care to keep a record of your
doings, of your tramps, adventures, successes, and
failures, your collectings, and your progress, appoint a
"ready writer" for your secretary. Such a record
might sometime be of real value to scientific botanists
in making notes of the flora of the region, and in
finding the habitat of uncommon species. It certainly
would in after years serve to recall many pleasant
memories. For collecting expeditions along the shore,
or to neighboring islands, go all together, or divide
off when it would be best, so as to send parties of
two each, to different localities, thus reaching as
many points as possible. Let each collect for all, that
is, collect enough specimens of each kind so as to be
able to supply all with duplicates. The study of
new or unknown plants, both mounted and un-
mounted, will be vastly more interesting and pro-
fitable, if it is carried on in company with the others.
The saying is, " two heads are better than one, if
one is a sheep's head." So, six pair of eyes and
six thinking minds are surely more than six times as
38 SEA MOSSES.
good as one, in searching the books, and identifying
the plants.
I venture to predict, that you will find the doings
of the "Sea Moss Club" an extremely pleasant diver-
sion, both socially and intellectually. You will find as
a result, that every member will be awakened to a
sdrring, thrifty, new interest in Nature's things, and
has acquired at once a keen appetite for the charms
of her more rare and delicate handiwork, and a new
faculty for seeing and observing her wondrous ways.
"Nature hath tones of magic deep, and colors iris bright,
And murmurs full of earnest truth, and visions of delight;
'Tis said, ' The heart that trusts in her, was never yet beguiled,'
But meek and lowly thou must be, and docile as a child.
Then study her with reverence high, and she will give the key,
So shalt thou learn to comprehend the 'secret of the sea.' "
And I shall venture also to believe that, when you
" Fold your tents like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away "
from the sound of the surf, and the sight of the
sea to take up your toils again in the hub-bub and
confusion of this work-a-day world, you will be very
sure to keep up the pleasant memories of the "Club,"
and perhaps also its form, by correspondence, and
furtlier study and exchange of plants. And, perhaps,
you will hear of other Clubs, formed and working at
other points of the coast, and you will entei into
correspondence and exchange with them also.
INTRODUCTION, 39
HISTORY.
It would be an interesting branch of the subject
if I had the necessary space at my command, to
give an adequate historical sketch of the cultivation of
this branch of botanical science in America. It would
be especially so if I could allow myself to give even
a brief account of the most distinguished workers in
this field. But I cannot. The enumeration of a
few names, dates, and incidents is all I can expect
to. find room for at this time.
Of course I am not in possession of data by
which I can ever tell how many scores or hundreds
of people every year employ their leisure hours by
the sea-side, in collecting, mounting, and arranging
these plants. We know of a few of them who have
given their collections to botanists to write about.
The first person who seems ever to have interested
himself in American Algae, vvas Mr. Archibald Menzies,
who singularly enough made his collections on the
Pacific Coast. The Phyllospora from that coast which
bears his name, was described, from plants which he
brought from there by the celebrated Dawson Turner,
in the early part of this century. He accompanied
Vancouver in his expedition to North Western
America in 1792-3, and with him sailed around the
world.
40 SBA MOSSES.
Harvey speaks of him, as he knew him late in
life, as one of the best preserved specimens of a
green old age that he ever knew, still enthusiastic
in his studies ; and with his plants before him, re-
calling with great vividness the stirring and often ad-
venturous scenes which were associated with their
collection. Many of them more than half a century
gone. Harvey writes : " It was his enthusiasm which
first possessed me with a desire to explore the
American shores, a desire which has followed me
through life."
In 1825, Beechy made his exploring expedition
into the North Pacific and brought home many plants,
an account of which was published in 1833. In July,
1840, a Russian exploring expedition touched the
California coast, and carried away several interesting
plants, some of which were described and figured by
Ruprecht, in St. Petersburgh, in 1852. Subsequently
Dr. Coulter collected in Monterey Bay.
The first collector of California Algae, whose col-
lections fell into the hands of botanists, subsequently
to the time of the great emigration to that land in
'49, was Mr. A. D. Frye, of New York city. His
collections were made about 1850. They attracted
some attention in New York as well as in San
Francisco. The plants in this collection are the ones
INTRODUCTION. 41
chiefly used by Harvey in making his account of
the Pacific Algae in the '' Nereis." Since that time,
and especially during the last ten years, many in-
dustrious botanists have been at work on that rich and
beautiful flora. I need not here mention the names
of this distinguished company, for several of the best
known of them get frequent mention in the pages of
this book. These and others appear often in the
botanical publications by other hands.
Previously to 1850, the knowledge of the marine
botany of our eastern coast was in a very imperfect
and chaotic state. There were a few collectors in
Boston and vicinity. How much any of them, with
the exception of Dr. Gray, knew about the natural
history or the systematic arrangement of the plants
does not appear. They included among others such
men as the late Mr. Geo. B. Emerson and Dr. Silas
Durkee. Mr. Stephen T. Olney, of Providence, who
did no inconsiderable work in illustrating the botany
of Rhode Island, collected a large number of Algae,
which are now in the Olney Herbarium of Brown
University.
A few enthusiastic and capable collectors about
New York city had been at work for some time,
inspired and guided by that able and devoted naturalist,
Prof. J. W. Bailey, of the West Point Mihtary Academy,
42 SBA MOSSES.
whom Dr. Harvey calls "the earUest American worker
in the field of Algology." He sent the first specimens
of our American Algae to Dr. Harvey. Though
Prof. Bailey lived a considerable distance from the
sea, he was mainly instrumental in awakening an
interest in these plants among those who were better
situated for collecting them than he. They were accus-
tomed to send their plants to him, and when he could
not resolve them after patient study, he sent them abroad
to be determined by the more advanced Algologists
of Europe ; and so, gradually, there came to be a little
scientific knowledge about these things difiused among
American collectors. There was a little knot of en-
thusiastic Algologists in New York city and Brooklyn.
Am^ong them, Hooper, Lounsbury, Pike, Congdon,
Walter and Averill, with whom Bailey was in constant
correspondence, and evidently sometimes went col-
lecting.
In a letter, which I have, written by him to Mr.
Hooper, he refers to that company in a pleasant way
as the " Algerines," and invites them all to come up
to West Point, and look over his collections; ''then,"
he says, "I believe you will carry the war into
Barbary with nev\^ zeal. It will be no less pleasure,"
he adds, " to show my microscope, &c., to several
friends at the same time than to one alone." In
INTR OD UC TI ON. 43
those days, before 1S50 — though how much before I
cannot say, as the letter has no date — a microscope,
in this country at least, was a curiosity of no small
moment. Of that company I believe only Captain
Pike remains.
A complete set of the published and manuscript
notes of Prof. Bailey's patient and accurate scientific
observations, together with his scientific correspond-
ence, his large collection of Algae, and no less than
3,000 mounted and catalogued microscopical objects,
are in the possession of the Boston Natural History
Society, and are accessible to all students of science.
It was mainly through the influence of Prof.
Bailey, that Dr. Wm. H. Harvey, Prof, of Botany
in Trinity College, Dublin, and the most learned and
distinguished British Algologist, came to this country,
to study and publish our plants. Arrangements were
made for the publication of the Memoir-, and Dr.
Harvey came here about 1850, and remained in the
country several months visiting important points from
Halifax to Key West, and collecting largely, also
availing himself of the collections of others. From
the material thus gathered, he published through the
Smithsonian Institution, the largest work ever yet issued
on American Alg^ — the "Nereis Boreali- Americana."
The first part containing the olive colored sea
44 SEA MOSSES.
weed/ was published in January, 1852; the second
part on the red sea weed, about a year later; and
the third on the green Algae, not till 1857, after
Dr. Harvey's return from Australia. They are in
quarto form, contain 50 colored plates, and can be
bought for about $25.
Since those days a nev/ generation has come up.
But in the meanwhile, for a space of twenty years,
scarcely anything was published on American Algae.
At the present time there are a few enthusiastic col-
lectors, and a still smaller number of devoted students
of Marine Algae scattered up and down our exten-
sive seaboard. The names of several of them will be
found making frequent appearance in these pages.
Only two of our more distinguished living botanists
have given special attention to this subject : Dr. Wm.
G. Farlow, of Harvard University ; and Prof. Daniel C.
Eaton, of Yale College ; the former of whom brings
to his work the advantage of several years' critical
study of these plants under some of the most cele-
brated Agologists of Europe — the lamented Thuret,
and the learned Agardh, and others. Dr. Farlow's
pubHcations consist of several annotated lists of Algae,
including new species, issued in the proceedings of the
Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in the reports of
the U. S. Fish Commissioners. A much more elaborate
INTRODUCTION. 45
work from his pen will shortly be published under
the auspices of the Fish Commission, if indeed it shall
not come to my readers before they see this,
I cannot conclude this introductory chapter, with-
out saying that if this book shall be the means of
awakening any interest in these creations, among the
sojourners by the sea-side, I should be sorry if it
should fail to carry the mind beyond the creature
to the Creator.
To me, the best story which any flower of land
or sea can tell, is the story it whispers to my
heart, not only of the skill and wisdom which fash-
ioned it, but also of the beneficient and sleepless
care which has kept and preserved it, has ministered
to its humble wants, and will not let it perish with-
out His notice.
"Not a flower
But shows some touch in freckle streak or stain,
Of his unrivaled pencil."
" The Lord of all, Himself thiough all diffused,
Sustains, and is the; life of all that lives,
Nature is but a name for an effect,
Whose cause is. God; He feeds the sacred fire,
By which the mighty process is mamtainedJ
He sleeps not, — is not weary; in whose designs
No flaw deforms, no difSculty thwarts,
And whose beneficence no change exhausts."
CHAPTER II.
BBIGRT GBEEN ALGuE.
I
KEY TO THE GENERA.
BRIGHT GREEN ALG^.
I. Frond Membranous.
I. Color Green.
(^,) Frond, wide, long and thin, the largest
green Algse. ^/ C"
Ulva, ^ Ip-
{b?) PVond, narrow, sometimes inflated, always
tubular.
Enter omorpha.
2. Color, Brown or Purple.
Frond, thin, translucent, sheeny, satin-like.
Porphyra. \ ^
II. Frond Filiform. b«5^
I . Frond Unb ranched.
Sometimes attached, straight and single,
sometimes floating, kinked and matted
hke wool. ^ ,
Chcetoino7pha. !)•'
2. Frond Branched.
{a.) Stem and (straight) branches each a
single cell, not jointed.
Bryopsis.
(b.) Stem and branches jointed, that is,
composed of short single cells at-
tached end to end.
Cladophora. p
Sz^eidC-n ^iii ^Wc^€-tv off , cFi^clve vvn5 jegficfi ^ei/uw-ti^t
"^n^ »ic^ nahz'C^x tiK>ffcvi. ale a^e ! §lcli.c, uwb ifvi^ten.
GCcic^ £l^a^!)e5^^encj<^r.vucic|elAgic}Cl-ntbc-^^e SSfdttcz. wm^ cSdvibcx,
3'fttt^evv^e (^di-teti. uofC 2z.acfvt in ^cvm- boofv iichtioie^vi cHclcli..
2ffd-n::.clWM,
Svttczt boc^ ae^at i4ocA. un- SSacTv r<ii.teatcs £lCc|enc|evuixr,
(^■tu-nevi^e SttdAM/C'W ofiti>ez4abe scPvfupftii^e clffuvMpei^,
'3)cxc4i. *^Ww/nbc-rQ«fva-ft aic^ -nuz- ^ewt eFo^acf^e-:p «vi-t^cc^t ;
§tauvic/n c-x^aasfc ^ic Sce^ -uoi. aCf ^ein Sc fiei-MVHvaa ^Vco ScGcv^a,
^Wefcfvco ba:> Wevnatc Sc^iCb oeffcat rw>c^ im 'S'top|c4a ei4-tfvwfft.
,^:=5- -^^^-^^^^'^' ; ^^ ■ c_ =^^^
CHAPTER II.
DESCRIPTION OF GENERA AND SPECIES.
Sub-Class.— CHLOROSPOR^.
Oxdex.— SIPHONED.
Genus.— BR VOPSIS* Lam.
^Jl^HE American genera of this order are all inhabit-
<^j ants of the warmer seas, except the Pryopsis,
and that is represented by but one species in oui
northern waters. The characteristic of the order is
the tube-like structure of the different parts of the
frond. Each main stem branch or branchlet is a
single long undivided cell, filled with a green granular
substance, suspended in the watery fluids of the plant.
♦ Biyopsis= Moss-like
48 SEA MOSSES.
Bryopis plumosa,* Lam.
Perhaps the most beautiful of our green Algae is
the one here named. The artist gives, in Plate I.,
an admirable representation of a typical plant col
lected by my friend Mr. A. R. Young, at Hell Gate,
N. Y. The picture will give you a better idea of
this interesting plant than any description in mere
words. But it had better be said, that it com-
monly grows in tufts, a considerable number of
fronds from the same point, from two to six inches
high. The leading filament is beset all around, or
sometimes on two opposite sides only, with long
widely spreading branches, which are shorter toward
the top of the plant. These, in their upper half,
are clothed with long or short, straight branchlets, so
placed as to give the plant a decidedly plumose or
feathery appearance. It grows upon the rocks, or
parasitical upon other Algae, in shaded tide pools
along our rocky shores. Mr. Collins informs me
that it may be found upon the muddy bottoms of
Mystic River, ''where the tide ebbs and flows twice
in twenty-four hours." I found some very beautiful
si^ecimens of it growing in a clear pool beside over-
hanging rocks on Ram Island, off the Marblehead
♦ Plumosa=featheiy.
I'kVOI'SIS I'LUMOSA, La >
PI AT -
GREEN ALGJ^. 49
shore. Miss Booth found it floating up from deep
water at Orient, L. I. Mrs. Davis collects it in
tide pools at Gloucester. It is not a rare plant,
though not very common. It may be found from
July to October, and very likely later. I have some
very fine plants collected by Mr. Young, at Hell
Gate, New York city, the last part of September.
It may no doubt be looked for in the same situa-
tions on the Pacific coast, as it grows nearly all
over the globe. I have a fine specimen from Dr.
Dimmick, of Santa Barbara, California. It is of
a dark green color, and its delicate feathery frond
can never be mistaken, when seen displayed in all
its rare beauty in the crystal waters of the rocky
basins where it makes its home. When mounted
and dry it adheres well to paper and has a peculiar
glossy look.
Order.— ZOOSPORES.
Genus — ENTER OMORPHA,^ Link.
The plants of this genus are of a bright green
color, resemble the Ulva in structure, and grow in
much the same situations along side of that, and
* Enteromorpha = Intestine-shaped.
50 SEA MOSSBS.
mingled with it in tide pools and upon the rocks
between tides. They are distinguished from that by
their sma//er and tubular fronds. There are three
American species of this genus, common everywhere,
on both sides of the continent, and easily distinguished
from each other.
Enteromorpha intestinalis Link.
The first named species is a simple unbranched
frond. Very slender at the bottom, it gradually
expands to the width of half an inch or more, some-
times an inch and a half, and grows from six to ten
inches high. It keeps nearly of the same width
throughout. When found growing in the tide pools,
it will usually be seen to be inflated, or filled with air
bubbles. Being filled out in this way, and at the
same time a little constricted at irregular intervals,
it has a decidedly intestinal appearance. The color
is a light green, but portions of the frond, especially
at the top, will often be found colorless or white,
ou ing to the fact that the chlorophyl, or green coloring
matter of the cells, has been discharged. The un-
branched inflated frond distinguishes this species.
Enteromorpha compressa Grev.
In this species the frond is compressed or flattened,
and is never inflated. The two layers of cells which
GREEN ALG^E. 51
make up the substance of the frond appear never to
be separated. This is the most widely distributed of
the species of this genus. It is found in all waters
rom the equator to the arctic circle, and beyond. It
is extremely slender at the base, but gradually
expands upwards. The branches come out mostly
near the bottom, are themselves commonly unbranched,
and are neither so wide nor so long as the fronds of
the last species. They mostly have blunt tops which
look as though they had been cut square off. Most
of my plants are three or four inches high, though
I have some but an inch, and some quite eight inches.
The color is a litde darker green than the last, and
the substance thicker. The branched frond dis-
tinguishes this, species from the last, and the simple
unbranched branches distinguishes it from the next.
Enteromorpha clathrata,Grev.
This is by far the most variable of our Enteromoj-phcB.
It is more slender than E. cojupressa, or any typical
form of E. intestinalis. It is often so fine and hair-
like, that you will certainly think it a Cladophora.
But a careful look at it with your pocket lens will
show you that the stem and branches are not made
up of a string of single cells, placed end to end, as
in that genus. This plant is profusely branched, and
52 SEA MOSSES.
the branches are divided and subdivided until they
are no thicker at the ends than human hairs. The
lesser branches are apt to be spiney. I have
specimens of E. clathrata in my herbarium, whose
fronds are nowhere more than one-eighih of an inch
wide, though they are a foot and a half long. They
will be found of various lengths, from two or three
inches up. Under a high magnifying power, the
cells composing the frond will be found to be quite
square, and placed in a regular rectangular order, so
that the frond will appear tesselated or latticed; hence
its name.
Genus.— C/Zr^,* L.
The largest bright green plants in all seas belong
to this genus. Two species are usually quite large
when full grown, though there are plenty of them in
the young state, and the collector will find them in
abundance no more than two or three inches high.
The first two species are common on both coasts ;
the last grows only on the Pacific.
Ulva latissima, L.
The widest Ulva is extremely variable in size and
* Ulva, from Ul = water in Celtic.
GREEN ALG^. 53
shape, varying in respect to the former from two to
twelve inches in width, and from six to twenty-four
and thirty-six inches in length. And in respect to
the latter, it is sometimes simple, and sometimes
lobed, sometimes plain, and as broad as long, some-
times long ruffled, or plaited on the edge. The
substance of the frond is thin and soft, and very
smooth and glossy, like silk. The color is a brilliant
green, being darker the deeper the water it grows
in. It sometimes turns brownish in the herbarium.
It is often found pierced with holes, the results either
of age or of the attack of snails. It is an annual,
but is often found in winter. It grows in pools and
below low-tide mark. It is so common everywhere
that I need not give special habitats.
Var. Linza L. — This is a charming and interesting
plant. Starting from a minute " hold- fast," as we
call the root, or place of attachment of the plant in
Algae, it gradually expands to the breadth of an inch
or more, and rises to the height of six or eight inches.
The edges are full or ruffled, so that when
spread out on paper, the plant seems plaited all
down the sides, and the full grass green color of the
frond is deepened at every plait. Our figure, Plate
II., gives a very good account of it. It is quite
common along our rocky shores northward, adheres
54 SEA MOSSES.
well to paper, and is, by far, the most beautiful and
most manageable of our UIvce, for the herbarium.
Ulva lactuca,* L.
The full grown plant differs from the polymorphus
laiissinia, which it in most respects, much resembles,
chiefly in these two particulars. It is of a paler color,
and a much thinner substance. On dissection, it is
found to consist of but one layer of cells, while U.
lattissima has two layers. This fact, no doubt, accounts
for both the peculiarities named above. When young,
it is said to form an inflated bag like an overgrown
Enteromorpha intestinalis, then at length by splitting
along the side, floats out a thin membrane of but
one layer of cells. It is an annual, and appears
in spring and summer along with, but not so com-
mon as U. lattissima. I found it in August, very
plentiful and very large at Southold, L. I.
Ulva fasciata, t Delile.
The frond is more rigid even than that of U.
lattissima; rises from a short stem, and is divided into
several strap-shaped segments half to three-fourths of
an inch wide, of nearly equal breadth throughout, and six
* Lactuca == lettuce,
t Fasciata == bundled.
.*
^
) A I ISslMA. J ^ \ ;;■ . \ .\^ / ^
GREEN ALG^. 55
or eight inches long, either simple or forked. The
margin is mostly toothed and frequently undulate.
The color is a full grass green, and the plants
in my herbarium certainly keep their color much better
than the Ulvcz of our coast. My plants adhere well
to paper. It is found in abundance at Santa Bar-
bara, California, but my correspondents do not else-
where report it from that coast.
Genus.^-FORPBYRA* Ag.
In structure, as well as in habit of growth, and
method of reproduction, this Genus agrees very well
with the Ulva. There is but one species in this
genus.
PORPHYRA VULGARIS, Ag. " LaVER."
Common everywhere. It is known by its frond
of dark purple, thin and somewhat elastic membrane,
which has a peculiar sheen like that of satin. This
quality of it is retainetl somewhat even when dry,
but is very striking and beautiful when the plant is
in ilie water. The frond is as variable in form as
that of the Ulva, from which it differs mainly in
respect to color. I have often found it near low
* Porphyra = purple-weed-
56 SEA MOSSES.
tide, growing attached to boulder rocks, a great
broad membrane, ten inches across, attached by a
single point near the middle of the frond ; again it
will put forth a number of segments of such a
frond, attached by their sides to one point; again a
narrowish frond a foot long or more, attached by a short
stem at one end. But the purple or brownish color,
and the " sheeny " smooth, satin-like appearance of the
frond will always serve to identify it. It is much used
in Great Britain as an article of food for a relish
with roast meat. The Chinese use it for making
some sort of soup. The North Adams Colony im-
ported it by barrels from China at one time. It does
not adhere well to paper in drying, shrinking and
pulling away. But it is said, that if the cloth is not
removed from it at all till it has been under heavy
pressure for a considerable time, and is fully dry, it
adheres perfectly to the paper. It is an annual, and
may be found the season through. I have fine
specimens of it from Cahfornia and from China, which
have a rich dark purple color. And I have it from
England as red as the "Dulse." But my plants from
the shores of Massachusetts Bay are of a very decided
brown.
GREEN ALG^. 57
Genus.— CLADOPBORA* Kiitz.
No less than nineteen species of this genus are
enumerated in Dr. Farlow's list of 1876, at least,
fifteen of which are said to be natives of our northern
shores. But our best botanists think the genus sadly
in need of revision, for this country at least ; and assert
that certainly two distinct systems of classification and
nomenclature prevail in Europe. I shall attempt to
give an account here of those species only which I
believe can be so described as to be easily determined
by the Amateur Collector. For the rest, you must
needs make resort to the friendly aid of those botanists,
whose ample suites of specimens will enable them,
by comparison with yours, to determine your plant at
a glance. The plants belonging to this genus, make
up no inconsiderable portion of the green flora of
our waters, and many of them make very beautiful
specimens for the herbarium. The genus is charac-
terized by extreme simplicity of structure. The
main stem and branches alike consist of a sort of
jointed thread, made up of single cells, attached end
to end. The plants are always profusely branched,
and in this regard are distinguished from those of
the next genus, which are never branched.
* Cladophora = branch-bearing.
68 SEA A/OSSES.
Cladophora arcta, Dillw.
The arched Cladophora, of which we give a fine
and characteristic illustration in Plate III., is named
from the peculiar habit of its growth. The branches
divide and subdivide by extremely acute angles, and
the ramifications are all very straight. This prevents
the unsymmetrical outline common to most plants of
this genus, keeps the branches somewhat close together
as they rise upward, and, at the same time, permits
them to separate gradually and symmetrically. This
gives the tuft its arched and graceful form, not unlike
the outline of our more perfect and beautiful elms.
This characteristic of form, the yellowish green color,
and the decidedly glossy or silky look, which the
plant usually presents when dry and pressed on paper,
makes its determination easy. Another peculiarity
which may be noticed in the dried specimen is the
disposition of the chlorophyl of the terminal branchlets
to collect in the extreme end cell, making that cell
have a distinctly darker green color than the cells just
below it in the branch. It is an annual. Mr. Collins
finds it common at Nahant and Nantasket, on rocks
between tides, from March to July. Miss Booth finds it
extremely rare at Peconic Bay, L. I. At Marblehead I
gathered it frequently during the summer months. It is
often found on the California coast, near Santa Cruz.
GREEN ALG^. 5&
Cladophora uncialis, Fl. Dan.
As its name implies, is about an inch long. I
have found it growing in tide pools, or on the rocks
near low tide, in little globose tufts, about an inch
across, and of the same height. The tuft grows from
a mass of matted root-fibres. It is more or less closely
matted together by reason of its wide and irregular
branching. When growing, the plant is of a bright
green color, which will be discharged if it is put into
fresh water. When dry it is quite a yellowish green,
lighter still toward the centre of the tuft. The cells of the
main stems and branches are of nearly uniform length,
and two or three times longer than broad. My plants
are all from Marblehead where they were collected
in midsummer. Mr. Collins finds this plant in the
same locaHties, seasons and situations, as the C. arcta,
which it resembles not a little. My other correspond-
ents do not report it, though no doubt it may be
found along our whole northern coast.
Cladophora rupestris, L.
The Cladop]io7'a "of the rock," is a very distinctly
marked species. It grows between tides and below.
Its best forms are to be found in tide pools near low
water mark, or on the perpendicular sides of rocks,
CO SB A MOSSES.
near low tide, under the curtain of the overhanging
J^ud. It is a very dark, dull green. Its filaments are
coarse, stiff, straight and rigid. Its secondary branches
divide at very acute anp^les, and therefore, as in C.
arcta, cluster and cling aomewhat closely about the
principal branches. There is a decided tendency in
the main branches to separate from each other, and
stand aloof with their closely clustering branchlets.
These separate pencils of dark green filaments are of
quite unequal length. The tuft is commonly three
or four inches high, but sometimes, six or eight. It
is not uncommon from New York city northward ; but
it certainly is more beautiful on our northern New
England shores. It is reported from Nahant and
Cape Ann, by Mr. Collins and Mrs. Bray, from March
to December.
Cladophora cartilaginea, Rupr.
Is a California plant, and is found growing, as Dr.
Anderson informs me, at all seasons, on rocks and
other sea weeds, in tide pools, very common at Santa
Cruz. Its robust, coarse frond; perceptable harsh-
ness to the touch; dull green color; stiff, straight
branches, set at an acute angle with the stem ; its
refusal to adhere to the paper, as well as its general
appearance, relate it closely with C. rupestris. It
GREEN ALG^E. 61
differs in being of a shade lighter color, and a some-
what slenderer filament. This is almost the only
Cladophora which gets sent over here from California,
though it is not the only one growing there. It is
reported common all along the coast.
Cladophora refracta,* Roth.
This plant grows on rocky shores in tide pools.
The filaments are very slender and fine, profusely
branched. The end branchlets are so profuse, and
so widely set, even recurved, or bent back, that they
give the plant a very decidedly feathery, or downy
appearance all along the edges of the frond and
branches. This is its most characteristic mark. It
is a bright green in the water, but fades a good deal
when dried and mounted. It grows three or four
inches high. It is a summer annual, and may be
looked for on the whole coast, in tide pools, or float-
ing up from deep water.
Cladophora gracilis, f Griff.
This species grows in deep water, parasitical upon
Zo:;tcra and smaller Alga^' in the Laininaria region.
It generally has its main branches much interwoven
* Refracta = bent back.
t Gracilis = slender, graceful.
T)^ SEA MOSSES.
and entangled, so that it will look like a formless
mass of green as it rises to the surface of the water
and washes on shore. The only guiding mark is its
long, straight, or inwardly curved ultimate branchlets.
These are conspicuous, and the cells of wliich they
are made are also seven or eight times longer than
broad. The filaments are as fine as human hair, six
or eight inches long, and have a very silky look when
massed in the mounted specimen. The color is a
very bright yellowish green when fresh. Mr. Collins
finds it at Nahant between tide marks. It is a summer
plant.
Cladophora glaucescens, Griff.
Grows in tufts not much entangled, on stones and
rocks, between tide marks and in pools, from three to
five inches high. The branches divide and subdivide
excessively, are quite slender, and the ultimate branches
are closely beset usually on the inside, almost always
on one side only, with a series of straight, acutely
branching undivided branchlets, composed of several
cells. In drying, the chlorophyl is usually dissipated
to one end of the cell, making the plant under the
lens look somewhat variegated. The filaments are
constricted at the joints of the cells. Color a pale or
glaucous green.
Green algje. g3
Cladophora fluxuosa, Griff.
Harvey Considers this plant nearly related to the
last, if it is even specifically distinct. It is chiefly
distinguished by its less compound habit, the length
and nakedness of the principal branches, and their
fluxuosity. It grows in rock pools between tides, is
not very common, and is found both north and south
of Cape Cod.
Cladophor.\ l^tevirens, Dillw.
The filaments are rather loosely tufted, feathery,
robust and somewhat firm or rigid ; color, a pale
green, as its name indicates, faded, and without gloss
when dry. " Filaments three to four inches long, or
more, much branched, main stem flexuous or angularly
bent, set with alternate or scattered occasionally
opposite, repeatedly decompound patent branches."
Articulations of the main stem, four to eight times,
of the ramuli, three to four times as long as broad.
Substance not very soft. It adheres, but not very
strongly, to paper, in drying. It is found in New
York Bay, on the Massachusetts coast, and in Cali-
fornia, in the latter region being quite common. Mr.
Collins has collected it at Nahant and Revere between
tide marks.
64 SbA mosses.
Genus.— CH^TOMORPHA* Kiitz.
The plants of this genus may be separated into
two groups, the straight and the crooked. The first
we shall commonly find growing in their native haunts,
standing up straight, stark and rigid. The others we
shall find usually floating, or thrown on shore among
the sea weed, a twisted, matted, entangled mass of
long green threads, thick or slender, and as crooked
and kinked as wool. The plants of this genus
consist in general, of a single long, bristly, jointed,
unbranched, green thread.
Ch.«tomorpha melagonium, Web. & Mohr.
This species grows in rock pools near low-water
and below. From a disk-shaped root, on the rock,
\t rises up four to twelve inches, solitary, straight, stiff
and wirey, of a dark green color, as its name signifies,
twice as thick as a bristle, tapering to the base, and
blunt at the top. Articulations two or three times
longer than broad. Common all along our rocky
shores north of Boston, from June to October.
CiLETOMORPHA ^REA, DiLLW.
This plant has something the same habit as the
last. It grows in the same situations along the whole
* Chaetomorpha = like a horse' s mane.
GREEA^ AL GM. 65
coast ; but more common south of Cape Cod. It is
common in southern California. It is but half the
thickness of the other, and is not nearly so stiff and
rigid, and grows not solitary, but in tufts, from three
to twelve inches long. The filaments are considerably
constricted at the joints. The articulations are about
as broad as long. The color is yellow green, fading
in the herbarium, and turning darker. Young plants
are straight, but the old ones are often bent. It does
not readily adhere to paper.
Ch^tormorpha Olneyi, Harv.
Filaments in tufts, about the size of the last, as thick
as a brisde, straight or bent, or much contorted ; pale
green ; articulations once and a half times longer than
broad. It is of a much softer substance than the last,
though it feels harsh when dried on paper, to which it
adheres firmly. I found it beyond the first beach at
Newport, Aug. 7, imich contorted, like C. Picquotiana.
It was named for Mr. S. T. Olney, of Providence.
Ch.^tormorpha Picquotiana, Mont.
Filaments loosely bundled together in masses; grass
green ; rigid, glossy, twelve inches long or more, twice
as thick as bristles, variously curved and twisted ;
articulations tliree to five times as long as broad
5
66 SEA MOSSES.
constricted at the joints. In drying, the plant fades a
little, but keeps its glossy look, and as the chlorophyl
collects at the ends of the cells it gets a variegated
appearance, an alternation of light and dark points
along the thread. It is common along the whole
coast. It grows in deep water five or six fathoms
down, and so must be sought for among the cast up
sea weeds, or floating on the surface of the water.
Mr. Collins found it in tide pools, at Revere, in the
spring, but it may be found all summer. It does not
adhere to paper.
Ch^tormorpha tortuosa, Dillw.
You will find upon the rocks, or upon the Algae
growing on them, mats of green wool, spread out or
rolled up. This is C. tortuosa. Its filaments are very
fine, finer than human hair, densely interwoven and
felted together into rolls, or spreading mats. It
does not colapse when taken from the water. It is
common at Nahant, Marblehead, and Nantasket, and
northward in midsummer. My specimens have adhered
very well to paper. It is not uncommon in California.
K^ bi^ '^'- j's^'s^'
KEY TO THE GENERA OF THE ATLANTIC
COAST.
OLIVE GREEN ALG^.
I. Frond leaf- hearing.
Main stem and branches cylindrical, bearing
globular, stalked minute, air vessels, and
narrow, undivided, dotted leaves. General
habit arborescent. "Gulf-weed." Sargassufn.
II. Frond, flat, coriaceous or leathery.
I. With Midrib,
(a.) Frond perforated. Agarmn.
{p.) Frond entire, stem bearing leaflets or
wings. Alaria.
2. Without Midrib.
(«.) Frond thick, leathery and large, dark olive
green or brown. "Kelp." Limifiaria.
{b.) Frond thinner and smaller, light green or
brown, from three to twelve inches
long. Puncfaria.
(<r.) Frond narrow in proportion to length,
half-inch wide, eight to twelve inches
long. Phyllitis.
{d.) Frond still narrower and constricted at
intervals. Scytosiphon.
68 SEA MOSSES.
III. Frond narrow, compressed or flatiened.
Frond forked or branched, thick, tough, one
to two feet long. " Rockweed." Fucics. P
IV. Frond filiforivi or thread-like.
I . Frond Unbranched.
Frond four to six inches long. Sometimes
inflated and constricted ; always covered
with minute dark dots. Color, yellow
olive. Asperococctts.
Long, ten to twenty feet, elastic, much at-
tenuated at each end. Chofda.
2. Frond Branched,
(a.) Branches mostly simple.
Long in proportion to main stem, parts as large \
as pack-thread. Color black. C/wrdaria.
Short in proportion to main stem. Color,
olive or full green. Casiagnea.
{b.) Branches, naked, divided and sub-divided.
Stem and branches repeatedly forking. Color,
yellowish olive, dotted over with minute
dark colored warts, frond six inches high.
Stilophora.
Frond one to two feet long, intricately
branched; branches at last very small.
Diciyosiphon.
KEY TO THE GENERA. 69
(<r.) Branches clothed:
1. With rows or circles of closely set, very
short spines, which overlap each other,
thus covering every part of the frond.
CladostepJms.
2. With ^ort, fine, light olive green, delicate
fibrils, which fall away and leave bare
spines ; or with long darker green pencils
of hair-like filaments. Desmarestia.
V. Frond capillary.
I . Uitbranched.
Frond small, parasitical on Fuais, tufted.
Elachista. /Ik.
2. Bra?iched.
Frond fine, profusely branched ; from a yel-
lowish to a bright green; parasitical on
Fuais, Cho?da, Chordaria and other ,,
Algse. Ectocarpus. V
VI. Frond tuberform.
Fronds look not unlike green tomatoes. ,
Leatliesia.
(^>-«^- <tD
KEY TO THE GENERA OF THE PACIFIC
COAST.*
I. Frond, leaf-bearing.
1. Stem flattened, rough, leaves oh each
edge, air vessels in the stems of some of
the leaves ; plant many feet, sometimes
many yards long. Phyllospora.
2. Plant from a few to several hundred
feet long. Stem cylindrical, slender,
branched, leaves on opposite sides of
the stem. Air vessel in each leaf stalk.
Root, large, much branched.
Mac7'ocystis
3. Stem long, slender, cylindrical, elastic,
terminated in a large rounded air vessel
which is crowned with a large tuft of
long, slender leaves. Root branched.
Neieocystis.
4. Stem short, stout, cylindrical, surmounted
at top with a large tuft of deeply
ribbed leaves. Postehia.
' Only those genera whicli hsve species peculiar to this coast are included
in this Key, ail the rett are in the other.
KEY TO THE GENERA. 71
n. Frond flat, leathery.
1. Stem long or short, mostly slender.
Blade thick, leathery, large or small,
dark olive green or brown. ''Kelp."
Laminaria,
2. Stem cylindrical, long, stout, winged on
each side with long stalked, leathery
leaflets. Blade of frond thick, long;
midrib at base, which fades out towards
the top. Pte,-ygophora.
3. Stem short, split, blade long, covered
with a net-work of prominent nerves.
r-r-r ^. Dictyoneurou.
Hi. l^ROND FLATTENED.
1. Frond narrow, thick, tough, forked, from
three inches to two feet long. " Rock-
^^eed." ^,,^^,^
2. Frond leafy below, finely divided and
filiform above. Air vessels in the swollen
bead-like ultimate branchlets. Halidn's.
3. Frond flat, narrow, thin, pinnately com-
pounded, pinnae and pinnulcX tapering
to top and bottom. Desmarestia,
4. Frond flat, fan-shaped, small, marked
with concentric zones or belts of darker
color. Zonaria.
r2 SEA MOSSES.
IV. Frond cylindrical, filiform.
Frond branched from leading stem, branches
short, thick as pack-thread. Plant four
to ten inches high. Color black.
Cho7'da7'ia.
V. Frond tuberform.
Frond inflated, massed, thin and soft, yel-
low olive, from one to three inches
through. Asperococcus sinuosus.
e^S^^l^i^^s
CHAPTER III.
OLIVE COLORED ALG^.
Down on the shore, on the sunny shore I
Where the salt smell cheers the land;
Where the tide moves bright under boundless J»^ht,
And the surge on the glittering strand ;
Where the children wade in the shallow pools,
Or ran from the path ia play ;
With the hushing waves on its golden floor
To sing a tuneful roundelay.
Down on the shore, on the stormy shore !
Beset by growling sea,
Whose mad waves leap on the rocky steep.
Like wolves up a traveller's tree.
Where the foam flies wide, and an angry blast
Blows the curlew off with a screech ;
Where the brown sea-wack, torn up by the roots,
Is flung out of fishers' reach •
Where the tall ship rolLi on the hidden shoals,
4nd scatter her planks on the beach.
^ 4
CHAPTER III.
Sub-class.— MELANOSPOR^.
Oxdex.—DJCTYOTE^.
Gex^us.— ZONARIA* A^.
ZONARIA TOURNEFORTI I, LaM.
'^1^1' ANY plants of this species have been dis,
<;^l^ tributed under the name of Z. flava. It is
common in southern CaHfornia, as some species of
this genus are in aH tropical and sub-tropical seas.
It grows from a short, flattened stem, a widely-
spreading, flat, fan-shaped frond, two to four inches
high, with obscure concentric bands of a darker color
on the olive green of the plant. The extreme rounded
* Zonaria — belted or zoned.
U SEA MOSSES.
thin edges of the lobes are bordered with a fine
dark line. The frond is split down from the margin
with clefts running down quite to Wie base, or half-
way or a quarter of the way, and the lobes are more
or less profusely sprinkled over with dark colored fruit
dots. It may be found throughout the season at Santa
Barbara and San Diego, upon small rocks near low-
tide, or thrown up by storms upon the beach.
Qxdex.—FUCACE^.
Genus — SAJ^GASSC/M* Ag.
This genus is represented by but one species on
our north Atlantic coast. But this species is com-
mon enough along most of the shores south of Cape
Cod.
Sargassum Vulgare, Ag.
The plant grows from a flat disdoid hold-fast,
with a filiform stem as thick as stout wrapping-
twine, which branches alternately, and bears on the
main stem and branches long narrow leaves, which
have stalks or petioles, a well-defined midrib and
toothed edges, and are marked on the surta^ '^ith
* Sargassum, from Sargazo, Spanish fur Sea-lentils.
OLIVE COLORED ALG^. 75
minute dark dots. The leaves vafy greatly in length
and breadth and even in shape, being from one to
three inches long, and from one-eighth to one-third
of an inch wide. The air vessels which distinguish
the genus are numerous little globes, one-eighth of an
inch or more in diameter, set upon litde stalks half an
inch long, which grow from the axils of the leaves.
Sometimes from the appearance of a sharp tip or
point on the opposite side of the globes, the stalk
seems to extend qi?ite through it. The fruit is
borne in a many times branched "twiggy," thick-
ened receptacle, which grows from the axils of the
leaves. I have found this plant growing common
upon small stones and pebbles all along our south-
ern New England coast, just below low-tide marks,
usually less than two feet long, though I have plants
not less than four feet. But the length will depend
mostly upon the age. Plants not more than a foot
long make the best herbarium specimens. It is peren-
nial.
76
Genus,— FBYLLOSPORA,'' Ag.
Phyllospora Menziesii, Ag.
This is a very common plant, growing along the
whole California coast, at all seasons, upon locks
between tides and below. It is found on the sea
beach of the ocean and Bay, at San Diego, thrown up
from deep water, and at Castle Point, Santa Barbara,
in deep water. From a branching hold- fast, a
short, round stem rises, which immediately divides
irregularly, into several long, flattened strap-like
branches, many feet, sometimes many fathoms long,
from one-quarter to one inch wide, thickish, rough-
ened, or smooth, and bordered on each edge with
a profusion of leaves. The leaves are wide and
rounded at top, narrow or distinctly stalked at bot-
tom, varying in length from one -half inch to six or
more inches. Sometimes set an inch apart, some-
times crowded close together, and interspersed at
intervals with large, pear-shaped air vessels, one-haVf
to three-quarters of an inch in diameter, these are
often tipped with a leaflet. The plant may be infal-
lably determined by the distinctive marks given above.
It should be partly dried before putting in the press.
* Pliyllospora = Spore-bearing leaves.
iKiDis, Hat:
OLIVE COLORED ALG^. 77
Genus. — HALIDR YS* Lyngb.
Halidrys osmundacea, Harv.
This elegant plant forms a prominent feature in
the marine flora of southern California. It grows in
abundance at San Diego, below tide, and in the
sluice-ways cut in the rocks by the water. It is
thrown on shore at all seasons. It is also abundant
at Santa Barbara, but absent at Santa Cruz. At all
events, that acute observer, Dr. Anderson, does not
report it as piesent. It grows from a discoid hold-
fast, a roundish flattened stem, as thick as a goose
quill. Flattening more and more upwards, the stem
divides or branches, and puts out from its edges,
winglets, or alternate leaves, from one to two inches
long, which, like the flattened stem, are thick and
midribed. Near the middle of the stem these
cease, and the stem becomes rounded again and
alternately branched, the branches also branching
alternately in nearly the same plane. The secondary
cylindrical branchlets form the air vessels of the
plant, by being much swollen and hollow, and
constricted at regular intervals, giving them an ap-
pearance not unlike a string of coarse black beads.
* Halidrys = Sea Oak.
78 SEA MOSSES.
The full grown plant must be two or three feet long,
though my specimens do not show it. It is olive green
when fresh, but like most of the FucacecB turns black
in drying.
Genus.— /^<7C^^,* L.
The plants of this genus are together popularly
known as "Rockweed." They constitute, on the
Atlantic coast at least, more than one-half of the mass
of our littoral Algae. There are three species sufficiently
common on the Atlantic coast to come within the
scope of this book, and one on the Pacific. The
latter will be described first, it standing thus in the
natural order.
FUCUS FASTIGATUS, AG.
This species seems to be the most common Fucm
in southern California, though JF. vesiculosus grows
there in abundance, as it does also along the coast
north; and F. Harveyanus is found as a rare plant
at Santa Barbara, and as a common one at Mon-
terey. Mr. Cleveland says that F. fastigiatus grows
at San Diego in mats, on flat rocks left uncovered
by the ebb tide, at all seasons, abundant.
* Fucus = Seaweed.
OLIVE COLORED ALG^. 79
It has a cylindrical frond as thick as a sparrow's
quill, which forks very near the base, and again each
of the parts repeatedly fork more and more remotely,
but less and less widely, six or seven times. The fruit
is borne in the thickened terminal branchlets. It grows
to the height of three or four inches. There are no
air vessels.
FUCUS VESICULOSUS, L. "ROCKWEED." |/^
This is the Fuais with little bladders, or air vessels.
Of the two Fuci which cover the rocks and wood-work
of wharves, along our whole eastern coast, as far south
as the Carolinas, the most plentiful is the one named
above. This and the next, grow together everywhere.
The plants of this species are greatly variable in size
according to their place of growth, being most luxuriant
where they have the tide longest. The frond varies
from a quarter of an inch to one and one-half inches in
width, and from two inches to two feet in length. It
is tough and leathery in substance, decidedly flat,
with an evident midrib throughout the main stem
and branches. It branches by forking, and the axils
of the divisions are usually very acute. Each frond
is commonly provided with from one to several pairs
of oval air bladders, immersed in the substance of
the frond, each side of the midrib. It bears its seed
80 SEA MOSSES.
vessels in the extremities of the branches, which are,
in that case, much swollen, and of a pronounced
yellow color. Cut through with a knife, these swollen
receptacles will appear to consist of a mass of hard
geiatine, and the seed vessels will show themselves as
bright yellow spots, all around the circumference. The
distinct olive green color of the fresh plant changes
to black in drying.
FUCUS NODOSUS, L. \/^
Our next most common " Rockweed," is the
"knotty" FuciLs, so called, from the knots or swell-
ings which the interior air vessels make in the frond.
This species differs from the last in several impor-
tant respects : first, by having a very narrow frond,
of the same width throughout, one-quarter of an inch
or more ; second, by its method of branching,
which is not in regular forks, but by putting out side
branches of various and irregular lengths, commonly
quite long, from the sides of the mairu stem ; third, by
the presence also with the branches of short (three-
quarters to one inch long) branchlets, whose wider
ends thicken and produce the seed vessels j and fourth,
by the prominent swellings or knots in the stem, and
branches which give the species its name. This and
the other Fuci are fastened to the rock on which thev
OLIVE COLORED ALGM. 81
grow by a discoid hold-fast. The plants grow between
tides from six inches to two feet long. It is a peren-
nial, and the old fronds will be quite likely to have
some species of Ectocarpiis growing on them. It is
also the favorite and almost the only home of the
Polysiphonia fastigiata. It is a rich olive in water,
but quite black when dry.
FUCUS FURCATUS, AG. '.
The forked Fucus resembles the F. vesiculosus in
its general habit of growth, but differs from it in
several particulars, viz., in having a somewhat wider,
shorter and more constantly typical frond, in having
no air bladders, and in having the terminal forks
which bear the seed vessels much longer, more
pointed, and less swollen, being two and sometimes
three inches long. The whole plant is a foot or
more in length, and grows just down at the extreme
low-water mark. It may be most easily found and
collected, during the time of "spring tides," at new
or full moon. It is common on the rocks at Nahant,
Marblehead, and northward. The microscopist dis-
tinguishes this species from F. vesiculosus by a differ-
ence in the contents of the seed vessels. There are
two other species of Fucus recognized in our north
eastern flora. F. ccranoidcs at Marblehead. and F.
82 SEA MOSSES.
serrafiis at Newburyport ; but their rarity makes it
undesirable to describe them in a work intended only
as a popular introduction to the more common forms
of our marine flora.
Order.— PH^ OSPORE^E.
Sub-order.— LAMINARIE^.
Ge\M\s.— MACROCYSTIS* Ag.
Macrocystis pyRiFER--\, Ag.
This is the giant among sea weeds. Indeed, it
attains a length unknown in any other vegetable form
upon the globe. Were it not to question the testi-
mony of careful observers, I should be much inclined
to doubt some of the stories told about this remarkable
plant. Dr. Hooker says it attains a length of 700
feet, and Bory St. Vincent declares it is sometimes
found 1,500 feet long. Mrs. Bingham, of Santa
Barbara, writes me that it is frequendy thrown on
shore there, 100 feet long. Mr. Cleveland, who has
been at great pains and trouble to get me exact
data as well as typical specimens of this plant, ha3
* INIacrocystis = With large bladders.
OLIVE COLORED ALG^^. 83
seen it 200 feet long at San Diego. The account
which I give is from their notes. The hold-fast for
these larger plants is a great mass of branching roots,
" as large as a bushel basket," sometimes three feet
broad, and a foot thick, which cling to the rocks and
boulders with great tenacity. One or more stems, from
a half to three-fourths of an inch in diameter rise from
this, putting out leaves on either side alternately, a
foot apart at the base, gradually growing nearer toward
the end of the stem. The leaves, in the largest plants,
are from two to four feet long, and three or four
inches wide, stalked, and the stalk swollen into a pear-
shaped air vessel, sometimes an inch and a half long,
and an inch thick. The leaves are thin, peculiarly
wrinkled, of a fine olive color, and along both edges
bordered with sharp, spine -like teeth, which point
forward. These plants grow in waiter, fifty feet deep
or more, in vast forests, coming to the surface
and then stretching their leafy fronds far out, prone
upon the sea. In this way, great fields of them,
sometimes a mile wide and several miles long, are
formed, especially near bays, as at San Luis Obespo,
Santa Barbara, San Pedro, and San Diego. The
stem terminates in a leaf-Hke expansion, and the
growth goes forward in a very curious fashion, by the
constant splitting off of the side of this terminal leaf.
84 SEA MOSSES.
The splitting is a natural process, and as it proceeds,
the petiole and the air vessel are successively developed,
so that when the tip of the leaflet, finally parts from
the parent leaf, it will be fully fonned, though not full
grown. At the same time there will be lying inside
of this four or five other leaflets, in various stages of
growth, from the most rudimentary, to the almost fully
formed. I suppose this must be considered the most
remarkable feature of the marine flora of the Pacific
coast, though it is by no means the only wonderful
plant that makes its home in those waters.
Genus.— JVB/^EOCVST/S* Post. &> Rupr.
Nereocystis Lutkeana, Post. & Rupr.
Next to the Macrocystis, the Nereocystis is the
most remarkable and wonderful plant of the Pacific
waters. To quote Harvey, " The Nereocystis of the
North West coast, is said, when fully grown, to have
a stem measuring 300 feet in length, which bears at
its summit a huge air vessel, six or eight feet long,
shaped like a great cask, and ending in a tuft of
upwards of fifty forked leaves, each of which is from
* Nereocystis — Sea-bladdef,
OLIVE COLORED ALG^E. 85
thirty to forty feet in length. The cask-Hke air vessel
which may be eight inches or more in diameter, buoys
up this immense frond, which hke Milton's hero, lies
' Prone on the flood extended long and large,
Floating many a rood.'
Here the Sea Otter has his favorite lair, resting
himself on the vesicle, or hiding among the leaves
while he pursues his fishing. The stem which anchors
this floating mass of fronds is of considerable length
and elasticity, though it is no larger than a whip cord.
It is employed as a fishing line by the rude natives
of the coast."
Dr. Anderson, of Santa Cruz, was kind enough
to send me a small typical specimen, sufficiently
large to show all the characteristic points in the
form and growth of the younger plants. Starting
from a many-pronged hold-fast, like that of the
Laminaria, is a slender stem not more than a
quarter of an inch in diameter. For two yards it
keeps this size, when it begins to expand. For the
space of another yard it gradually increases in size,
and is evidently hollow, till at the end it has at-
tained a diameter of one and a quarter inches,
when dry; it probably was something more than that
In the water. Then it is immediately and suddenly
irawn in, or constricted, and forms a narrow neck^
86 SEA MOSSES.
not more than three-quarters of an inch through,
and then as suddenly expands into a large, egg-
shaped vesicle, the narrow end of the egg being
next to the neck, and the wide end crowned with
two tufts of long, narrow leaves. The dimensions
of the oviform part of the air vessel are, in the
long diameter two and three-quarters inches, and in
the short two and a quarter inches. The leaves are
from one-half a yard to a yard long and from half
an inch to one inch wide, many of them with thick
brown patches of spores upon them.
Mr. Cleveland has had the kindness to send me
parts of a plant and drawings of the whole, which
enables me to add a point to the history of this
curious genus, that I think will be interesting to
collectors. This form differs from the one already
described, by the air vessel bearing upon its apex
a single large forking petiole, whose two arms spread
out on each side and branch, like the anders of a
deer; each short "prong" bearing, at the end, a
broad, long leaf. In a plant whose air vessel measures
5 2 inches in diameter, the flattened petiole at base
was two inches broad, and the two " horns " into which
it immediately divided, were i 4 inches broad and eight
feet long. These gave out branches upon the inside at
intervals of about a foot, which branches, at a distance
DAS^-
A T''TV<;ax-'
PLATE
OLIVE COLORED ALG^. 87
from their base of a foot or so, forked, and bore
on each part a long, broad tongue-shaped leaf, two
or three feet long, and as many inches broad.
Prof. Eaton has kindly sent me a copy of Areschoug's
description (in Botaniska Notiser for May 15, 1876),
of what he, with some hesitation, names a new species :
N. gigantea, which answers very well to Mr. Cleveland's
plant. It would seem to be an easy matter for our
California botanists to settle the question of whether
or not these two extreme forms are always distinct,
or insensibly pass into each other, in a large group
of specimens ; or whether the iirst is but the
young of which the last is the mature form, as some
botanists seem to think. Mr. Cleveland assures me
that the last described form is quite constant.
It is a very common plant, growing in deep water,
all along the west coast, at all seasons, and is flung
on shore in great quantities by the storms.
G^enus.— FOSTELSIA, Rupr.
POSTELSIA* PALM/EFORMIS,t RUPR.
This species is quite common on the west coast
* Postelsia, named for A. Postels, a fellow-botanist with Ruprecht.
t T>alniaeforniis = Paln)-='-'='ned.
88 SEA MOSSES.
from Santa Cmz northward. I have seen but one
spechnen of this curious and interesting plant, and
that was kindly sent me by Dr. Anderson. It is a
small but apparently a typical one. The excellent
figure and description given by Ruprechf leaves noth-
ino: in that line to be desired. The main stem is
many pronged at the base, hollow, about half an
inch thick, which size is uniform, except that it tapers
a little near the top, and about a foot long. It is
crowned with a cluster of stalked leaves a foot or
more long, an inch or so wide at the middle, tapering
to a point at the top, and set in pairs upon the long
forked petiole. The leaves are curiously ribbed or
" fluted " lengthwise, the higher ribs being in the
middle. An examination shows that the depressions
on one side correspond to the elevations on the other
side of the leaf. It is found at all seasons on exposed
points, growing upon the rocks.
Q^Qx\\x%.^ PTERYGOPHORA* Riipr.
Pterygophora californica, Rupr.
For a fine plant of this species I am also indebt-ed
to the liberality of Dr. Anderson, and for a full
* Pterygophora = Wing-bearing.
OLIVE COLORED ALG^. 89
account of its habits to the celebrated botanist who
has done so much to illustrate the marine flora of
the North Pacific, Dr. Ruprecht.
This plant more nearly approaches the Alaria than
any other of the LaminariecE. Fastened to the rock
by a multitude of prongs which radiate from the base
of the stem, the stem itself rises two or three feet,
half an inch thick, mostly quite cyhndrical, but flattened
near the top, where it gives off the characteristic '' wings "
on each side. The " blade," or the main leaf, is two
feet or more long, three inches broad in the widest
part, frayed out at the top, and thickened through
the whole length in the middle with a midrib, which
is apparently a continuation of the stem. This mid-
rib has not the deflnite outline which it has in the
Alaria, but is only a thickening of the middle of
the leaf which vanishes imperceptibly towards the
edges and the top. The '' wings " are stalked, not
crowded close together as in the Alaria, but set in
pairs, some distance apart, along the opposite sides
of the main stem, four or five or more pairs of them,
from one to two feet long, and from one to one and
one-half inches broad, with no trace of a midrib.
Mr. Cleveland reports this plant common from February
to May, growing in deep water, along the coast as far
south as San Diego. Dr. Anderson finds it among
90 SEA MOSSES.
the commonest plants growing with the other
LaminariecB throughout the season at Santa Cruz,
CaHfomia.
Genus.—ALARIA* Grev.
Alaria esculenta, Grev.
The edible Alaria grows upon submerged rocks
just below tide. It is a plant whose peculiar aspect
makes it very easy of recognition and quite impos-
sible to confound with any other. Unlike any
other of the " Kelps," except the Agarum it has a
stout midrib running the whole length of the plant.
This together with the little cluster of ribless leaflets
or wings, barne on each side of the stem, just
below the blade, makes the plant absolutely distinct.
These leaflets bear the spores or fruit, and are
always present except on young plants. The plant
makes its anchorage upon the rock by the same
means as the Laminariece. generally. The stem
is from three inches to a foot long, cyHndrical. The
blade consists of a thin wavy, or ruffled olive
colored membrane, from one to four inches wide,
* Alaria = wins'<=d.
POLVSIPHOXIA VIOLACKA, GreZ-
OLIVE COLORED ALG^E. 91
developed on each side of the thick midrib. It
is of a delicate, tender texture, which easily tears,
and then always in the same definite oblique direction
toward the midrib. The ends of the old plants are
usually frayed out, the midrib protruding beyond
the rest of the blade with the ''rags and tatters" of
the thin membrane hanging to it. The young plants,
when not more than six or eight inches high, make
veiy beautiful specimens, if neatly mounted. They
are of a very delicate green color, and adhere well
to paper, as, indeed, do my full grown plants. The
species is said to grow twenty feet or more in length
in some places. I have never found it over five or
six. On the outside of Ram Island, off the Marble-
head shore, in midsummer, I found the rocks literally
covered with these interesting plants; and as they
hung out over the edge of the submerged cHffs, and
waved their long, delicate olive streamers in the green
rolling waters, they certainly presented a bit of sub-
marine scenery, well worth the trouble to find and
look at. Turner says that in his day, the midribs of
this plant stripped of the membrane, and the thickened,
fruit laden leaflets, were brought to market and sold
in Scodand, to eat, and were said to be sweet to the
taste. They are popularly called " Daber Locks." Mrs.
Bray finds it at Kittle Island and Magnolia on Cape
92 SEA MOSSES.
Ann, growing sometimes in tide pools. It need not
be looked for south of Cape Cod.
Geuus.—VICTVONBC/J^ON* Rupr.
DiCTYONEURON CaLIFORNICUM, RuPR.
This is certainly one of the most interesting
plants of this group. It was first brought from
the coast of California, in 1840, by Wosnessenski,
a Rlissian navigator, and described by Ruprecht.
In addition to his excellent figure and full text,
I have several specimens kindly sent me by Dr. An-
derson, as a guide in giving an account of the
plant. The one before me is about thirty inches long
and two and three-fourths inches wide in the widest
place, tapering somewhat toward the broken top, and
rapidly to the stem below. The frond has a tendency
to bend in the direction of one edge like a sabre
blade. Its distinguishing mark consists, however, in
the fact that both surfaces of the frond are woven
over with a net-work of prominent veins and ribs,
some of which run in a general direction, parallel
with the edges of the frond, and others not so thick
* Dictyoneuron = Netted nerves.
OLIVE COLORED ALG^. 03
or prominent, connect these in an irregular way, so
that the "meshes" are of very indefinite size and
shape. The hold-fast is a small bunch of branching
roots, and the stem, which is flat, almost immediately
expands into the blade. In most of the fronds,
especially the older ones, the stem is split into halves,
the split extending sometimes several inches into
the blade of the frond. This splitting is a natural
process, and not accidental. No collector of California
Algae ought to miss this curious and quite unique
species. It may be found at Santa Cruz and north-
ward, from June to" November, among the other
Laminariece.
Q^Qxwxz.— LAMINARIA* Lam.
The larger plants of this genus bear collectively
several popular names, as '' Kelp," '^ Oar Weed,"
" Devil's Aprons," etc. They are the largest Algae
belonging to the flora of our Atlantic coast. The three
most common species to be named below, from that
flora, may be easily distinguished from each other by
well marked specific differences.
They are all deep water plants, and while they
Laminaria = A leaf.
94 SEA MOSSES.
would not be chosen for their beauty in the herbarium,
they are certainly in the water, extremely graceful and
interesting forms. They are all perennial. The method
of drying, pressing and mounting them, has already
been given in the Introductory Chapter.
Laminaria saccarhina. Lam. V
This species is so named for the supposed
sweet taste of the frond, a quality which I
confess has thus far quite eluded my powers of
detection. It is distinguished from the next species
to be named, by its short stem, and its narrower
frond. The stem is not more than four to eight inches
long, and from one-third to one-half an inch thick. The
stem terminates below in a conical mass of stout, root-
like prongs, which constitute the hold-fast. These
are firmly glued to whatever the plant grows upon,
as shells, rocks, stones, etc., at the bottom of the sea.
If you try to remove one of these large plants from
its native anchorage, you will find that it holds very
fast. The short stem expands upward abruptly, into
a wide, thick, leathery, smooth, dark olive colored
blade, eight to twelve inches wide, and six to eight
feet long. It is usually wavy or ruffled at the edges.
A narrow and very beautiful variety of this species grows
along the shore at Newport, over by the beaches. It
OLIVE COLORED ALG^. 95
is not more than three or four inches wide, but at
least two yards long. The frond is very smooth and
glossy, and exquisitely ruffled, so that as it rises and
falls with the undulating waters, like a streamer in the
upper air, it is, indeed, in form and motion, a thing
jf rare grace. These plants lose most of their beauty
(vhen dried and made ready for the herbarium. But
ui the water they are most wonderfully fine. I want
to say a word for them because I know they are com-
monly either passed by without notice or countenence,
and rejected for their imputed ugliness. But you want
to see them at home if you would appreciate what
they may be under favoring conditions. To those
who make their summer home on Cape Ann, and
desire to see the wider forms of this species, as they
display themselves at their best, I would suggest that
you go along the rocky shore south of the village of
Rockport, out towards the Light House. As you come
near the end of the land, you will find many large
and deep tide pools, where these plants grow to per-
fection. There, as they bend with their wavy fronds
in long, graceful curves, over-arching the smaller Alg^e,
which carpet the bottom, and decorate the sides of
the pool; their own rich olive brown color setting off
the brilliant reds and the bright greens of the other
plants; they do, indeed, help to make a picture of
96 SEA MOSSES.
exquisite beauty. This plant is very common on the
Atlantic coast north of New York city, also on the
Pacific.
Laminaria longicruris, de la Pyl. v^
The long stemed Laminaria is a plant which in our
New England waters grows to about the size of L.
saccarhina, except as to the stem which is usually
quite as long as the blade of the plant. The whole,
therefore, is from twelve to sixteen feet long, and I
have found it at Marblehead eighteen to twenty feet
long, the blade twelve to sixteen inches wide. Harvey
says he found plants at Halifax, whose blade was two
to three feet wide. The hold-fast, as in the last species,
is composed of a number of stout roots, put out by
the stem at the bottom. The stem is very slender
and solid at that point, but toward the middle swells
to the diameter of an inch or more, and become
hollow. It tapers also toward the blade to a diam-
eter of half an inch. Altogether, the stem will be
found from six to ten feet long in the full grown plant
The blade is much the shape and color of the wide
forms of Z. saccarhina. It grows in deeper water
than that species, and may be found in from five to
ten fathoms or more. It is very abundant from Green-
land to Cape Cod, and in she North Pacific
OLIVE COLORED ALGJE. 97
Laminaria flexicaulis, Le Jolis.
This is the Z. digitata in part, of Harvey's "Nereis."
The holdfast and stem are much the same as in L.
saccarhina, except in the more variable length of the
stem. But the blade is much wider and is split from
top to bottom into several long, strap-shaped segments
from one to three inches wide. The whole blade
may be from one to three feet wide, and from three
to five feet long. It grows in deep tide pools, imd
in the sea, from just below low- water mark to consider-
able depths. This, like the other species of La^ni-
naria, puts forth its new, yearly growth in the winter
and early spring, in a most curious way, which I
will now describe.
The new blade grows forth from the top of the
old stem and interposes itself between the old stem
and the old blade. It carries the old blade on its
top, till it has grown to nearly its full size, when
by a process of natural decay, the old blade is sep-
arated from the new, and falls away, in the month
of May, and is washed ashore, in great numbers.
The process has a very curious phase in this species.
It is seen that the new frond splits down by a nat-
ural process some time before the old blade is cast
off, the old blade, meanwhile, holding the tips of
the straps together at the top, while they are quite
98 SEA MOSSES.
parted asunder lower down. One by one the straps
from the margin inv/ards are pulled away from the
old blade, till at last it is held by but two or three
central ones. These part at last, and the old frond
falls like an autumn leaf
" Because its time to die has come."
Those who live by the sea the year around may
be interested to watch this curious process of "shed-
ding the leaf," in this species. It was first described
many years ago, by that most pains-taking and sharp-
eyed naturalist, Dawson Turner. This species is not
common, if it is found at all, south of Cape Cod ;
north of that it is plenty enough.
Laminaria Andersonii, Eaton.
I have three copies of this plant, sent me a few
years ago by Dr. Anderson himself, and for want of
» a prmted description by the author, will give a de-
scription of one of these. This specimen is about
one yard long. The lower half is a stem with the
usual branching hold-fast. The stem is cyHndrical, of
uniform size, one-sixth of an inch in thickness. It
suddenly expands into the blade of the frond which
IS about an inch wide, and, of course, half a yard
long, sides parallel except where it narrows into the
OLIVE COLORED ALG^. 99
stem, broken off or " frayed out " at the top. It
is reported at Santa Cruz, California, only, where it
grows on rocks with Pterygophora.
Genus.— AGARUM* Bory, V^
AgARUM TURNERI, PoST. AND RUPR.
This plant differs frSm the Laminarice among
which it grows, by its shorter stem, its thinner blade,
its stout midrib running through the whole frond,
and, most of all, by the fact that it is perforated
throughout with holes of various sizes. This gives
it its popular name of " Sea Colandar." It grows
in deep water, holds to the rocks by a number of
root fibres, has a stem one-fourth of an inch in
diameter, three to twelve inches long which expands
somewhat as it enters the blade, forming a substan-
tial midrib. This blade is usually a foot wide, often
more, and from one to three yards long, though
you will often find it no more than a foot or half
a yard long. It has a rather more pronounced
green color than the Laminaricr, and, as before
remarked, is of thinner substance. It is very abundant
* Agarum = A fungus or mushroom.
too SEA MOSSES.
from Cape Cod to Greenland, and is to be looked
for among the " Kelp," and other sea- weed thrown
up from deep water. It will be known at sight by the
frond being full of holes. It is dried and mounted
in the same way as the LaminaricE,
Sub-Order —SPOROCHNEM,
Genus— STILOPHORA*- Ag.
There are three species of this genus set down
in the books, as belonging to our flora. Only one
of them is of sufficient importance to warrant me in
making mention of it here.
StILOPHORA RHIZODES,t AG.
Is a plant interesting alike to the botanist and
the microscopist j for, if you take its wart-like mass
of spores and filaments, and cut a thin section of it,
and mount it for the microscope, you will find you
have a beautiful object.
It is a filiform plant, with stem and branches
once or twice as thick as a bristle. It is much
branched by irregular forkings, six or seven times
repeated, the extreme ends short and widely spread-
ing. It grows four to six inches high, and is of
* Stilophora = Dot-bearing.
t Rhizodes = Root-like.
OLIVE COLORED ALG.^E. 101
an olive green color with a yellowish tendency, which
is even more pronounced in the dried than in the
living plant. Its unmistakable mark is the little
wart-like protuberances which are thickly scattered
over all the stems and branches, making it deci-
dedly rough to the sense of both sight and touch.
It is found on our coast south of Cape Cod only ;
not very common in most places, but at Orient, L. I.,
in Peconic Bay, Miss Booth reports it growing in
unUmited quantities, in July and August.
Syih-Oxdex.— ASPEROCOCCE^.
Genus.— ASPEROCOCCUS* Lam.
There are two species of this genus on our
eastern coast and one in California. Only one is
common with us here ; the other, therefore, A.
compressus, which has been reported only at Glou-
cester, will not be described.
ASPEROCOCCUS ECHINATUS,t GrEV.
Fiond flat or inflated, from three inches to one
or two feet long, and from one-eighth to half an
inch wide ; blunt at the apex, and attenuated toward
the base. It may be known by its light olive color
* Asperococcus = Rough-seeded,
t Echinatus = Prickly.
102 SEA MOSSES.
and by being covered all over on both sides with
minute, oblong dots of a darker shade, which are
masses of spores. This roughening of the surface by
these spore masses, gives the plant both its generic
and specific name. It is a summer annual and
grows on the rocks, in pools between tides. Mr.
ColHns has collected it at Revere and Nantasket,
from June to August; Mrs. Davis, at Gloucester in
the spring. I have found it in the summer at
Marblehead, but not very common.
ASPEROCOCCUS SINUOSUS, BORY.
This plant much resembles our Leathesia tuber-
forniis in outline and habit of growth, though it is
much thinner in substance, and grows in much
larger clusters. Harvey says each individual frond is
globose, one or two inches in diameter or larger,
becoming much inflated and irregular in outUne as
it advances in age, and is thus often ruptured and
pierced here and there with holes of irregular shape
and size. The frond is membranous, thin, soft, but
not very tender; color, a brownish olive. It may
be found common all along the California coast, at
all seasons, growing. Dr. Anderson says, on tips of
Halidrys. Mrs. Bingham finds it growing on small
rocks and other Algae at mid-tide. Dr. Dinnick on
OLIVE COLORED ALG^S. 103
A?nphiroa. Mr. Cleveland, in bunches, on flat rocks
between tides, and washed ashore on the beach.
Sub-order.— CHORDARIE^,
Genus.^ CHORDA* Lam.
Chorda ^ilum, Stack.
The thread-like cords, which are sometimes pop-
ularly called ''Dead men's lines," and sometimes
" Mermaids' fish-lines," are plants very easily described
and very easily recognized. The frond of C filum is
a single undivided cord rising from a discoid hold-fast,
by which it is attached to some small pebble or shell
upon the sea bottom. At first, a mere thread, it in-
creases in size till it is as large as a pipe-stem, or
larger, then again tapers to a long, slender-pointed
termination. When young, it is covered all about
with short, fine, olive-colored hairs, which disappear in
age. It loves quiet waters and grows to the height of
ten, twenty, and even forty feet, according to favorable
conditions. It is quite tough and somewhat elastic
when recent. It is a favorite habitat of some of the
smaller Algae, like some species of the Ectocarpus,
* Chorda = A cord.
104 SEA MOSS£S.
Call>.tha77inion etc. The Cyclopoedia Britannica mentions
the fact that it is distributed in beds through the North
Sea and British Channel, fifteen to twenty miles long,
and yet not more than 600 feet wide. It is common
along all our shores, from New York northward. It
grows, of course, in deep v/ater. Its fronds reach
up, at least, to the surface. The old fronds should
be allowed to dry off a little before mounting, but
the young ones, covered with hairs, may be floated
out in water. The long plants are best disposed of
by coiling up neatly on the sheet of mounting paper,
and drying in the usual way, under pressure. They
seem to adhere well.
Genus.— CHORDARIA* Ag.
Chordaria flagelliformis, Ag.
The whiplash Chordaria is found in bewildering
abundance along our whole coast. It may be known
by its very dark brown or quite black color, both
in the water and on paper ; and by its long, slender,
naked, mostly undivided branches, which sweep off
from all sides, and, in not ungraceful curves, over-
* Chordaria == Cord-like.
OLIVE COLORED ALG^B. 105
arch the top of the frond. Neither stem nor
branches are ever larger than a pack-thread, and
commonly not half so large. The leading stem
ascends half-way or more, through the whole length
of the plant. The branches put out very irregularly
all around; sometimes scattered, sometimes much
crowded, sometimes short, but more often long and
bent inward, as indicated above. It grows upon
shells, stones, rocks and other Algse, to which it is
fastened by a minute disk. The substance of the
frond is cartilaginous, tough and elastic. When
taken from the water it will be decidedly slippery
to the touch, and when carried home and removed
from the mass of plants in the collecting case, it
will be found to be not a little shmy. It will be
quite sure to stain the cloth used in pressing and
drying it, and, perhaps, also the paper on which it
is mounted, a dark, brownish color. It is an annual,
and grows between tides, not usually over a foot
high, and the old fronds will be quite certain to be
infested with some species of Ectocarpus.
Chordaria divaricata, Ag.
The widely branched Chordaria is a deep-water
plant and may be collected along our whole coast,
from New York to Gloucester, and probably farther
106 SEA MOSSES.
north. But it will be found more plentiful south
than north of Cape Cod. I have taken it at
Southold, L. 1., and at Wood's Holl. It is not so
robust a plant as the last. From the first, it branches
out widely in all directions, in a straddling, strug-
gling, bushy way. The branches, which branch again
and again, are -beset throughout with short (one-
sixteenth to one-tenth of an inch), spines^ which
are mostly forked widely at the ends. These are
the characteristic points. The plants of this, like
those of the last species, are somewhat slippery and
slimy, and must not be put under too much pres-
sure at first. It often grows a foot or more, though
my specimens are not more than half that height.
My correspondents report it as found all summer at
all points.
Chordaria abietina, Rupr.
This is the only species of this genus found on the
coast of Cahfornia. It is quite common at Santa
Cruz and northward, growing on the boulders^ along
rocky beaches.
A mounted specimen, four inches high, lies before
me as I write. It has a principal leading stem extend-
ing the whole length of the plant, which is two oi
three times as thick as a bristle, and i-Quch attenuaied
/
OLIVE COLORED ALG^E. 107
at the base. A quarter of the way up it is bare. From
that point it is thickly beset all around with short
branches, varying from half an inch to one and one-
half inches long, undivided, narrowly constricted at
the base, blunt at the apex, mostly cur\'ed, and stand
out perpendicularly from the main stem.
Q,Qx\w%.— CASTAGNEA, ThureL
Castagnea Zosters, Thuret.
This species is named from the "Eel grass" or
Zostera, on the fronds of which it commonly grows.
It is a very slender plant, not larger than a thread or
bristle, and some six or eight inches long, of a light
olive color, somewhat bent in a zigzag way, and but
sparingly branched. The branches are irregularly
placed, short (about one inch long), spreading horizon-
tally from the main stem, and either widely forking
or beset with twig-like branchlets, which are also fre-
quently forked or spiney. It adheres nicely to paper,
and is not an uninteresting though by no means a
handsome plant. I found it in August, in Marblehead
harbor. My correspondents do not report it else-
where, though Dr. Farlow records it in Wood's Holl,
108 SEA MOSSES.
and Mr. Collins and Mrs. Bray in Robinson's "List
of Essex Plants," report it from Gloucester.
Castagnea virescens, Thuret.
This is apparently a shorter but more robust plant,
and more thickly branched than the last. It is of
a more pronounced green color, as its name implies.
It is not more than three inches long, main stem and
branches both straighter than in C. Zosterce, but
having the twiggy appearance peculiar to the genus.
American plants are said to grow on Zostera, though
no doubt it grows parasitical on the other Algse also.
According to Le Jolis they are found , on stones and
pebbles, and in tide pools on the rocks at half tide,
toward the end of spring. Mrs. Davis finds it growing
on sand covered rocks at half tide, all summer at
Gloucester, and Mr. Collins found it in June at Revere,
cast up from deep water, not very common. Miss
Booth makes report of it in the same situations at
Peconic Bay. It is also reported at Wood's Holl and
Portland. I should expect to find it at Marblehead.
Fig. 2
1. POI.VSIPIIOMA PARASITICA, Grcv
2. MiCROCLADIA BoREAT.IS, Rupr.
PLATE VII.
OLIVE COLORED ALG^. 109
Sub-order.— MYRIONEM^.
Q^Qmz.— LEATBESIA, Gray.
Leathesia tuberformis, Gray.
I suppose it was thought a great compliment to
X brother naturalist, to name this plant for him.
But one cannot help thinking, that one would
rather lend his name to some of the more
interesting and beautiful of the " flowers of the
sea." Still, this plant has beauties of no uncommon
kind, as you would see, if you were to take a very
thin slice of it, and put it under the lenses of a micro-
scope. It is also very widely distributed, being
found in almost every sea, and on the most distant
shores of the whole globe. So this humble and homely
plant, carries the name of the Reverend Naturalist,
G. R. Leathe, far and wide. To the unaided eye, it
looks as it lies fastened there upon the rocks, or
resting its green lobes upon the fronds of Chondrus
crispus, so nearly like an unripe tomato, that you
are inclined to doubt if it can be an Alga at all,
and are more than half disposed to believe, that it
must be some succulent vegetable which Neptune is
preparing for his board. It makes its appearance in
April or May, and is ripe by August or September,
and then soon disappears.
no SEA MOSSES.
Genus.— £ LA CBISTA* Duby.
Elachista fucicola, Fr.
No doubt you will wonder what the little tufts
of olive colored hairs are, which are so common upon
the " Rockweed/' every hair of which seems to radiate
imbranched, from some central point of attachment
hidden in the tuft. I have given its name above.
It will be noticed also that, though the longest hairs
are not over half an inch long, there is a mass of
them much shorter than that, above the general crop
of which, the long ones seem to stand out stiff and
solitary. It had better, perhaps, be removed from
the Fiicus before mounting, though a thin slice of
that might be cut off with the Elachista. It makes
a very interesting microscopical object. Its delicate
pencils may be found upon the '' Rockweed " almost
everywhere, for it is widely distributed.
Sub-ofder.— SPHA CELARIE^.
Genus.— CLADOSTEPBUS,^ Ag.
Cladostephus verticillatus, Ag.
The whorled Cladostephus is very easily dis-
tinguished from all other plants of the sea, except
* Elachista = The smallest,
t Qadostephus =- Branch crowned.
OLIVE COLORED ALGAL. Ill
its "next of kin," the C. spongioses; and it is not
of the first importance, if it is not distinguished from
that, for it is doubtful if they are quite distinct species.
The frond is not much thicker than a bristle, quite
cylindrical, hard and stiff. It begins to branch quite
low down, and continues, by repeated, regular, though
not wide forkings. The whole frond is clothed though-
out with a fleece of densely set, very short branchlets,
which grow in regular circles around the plant. The
circles or "whorls" are not more than one-tenth of
an inch apart, and the branchlets are not less
than one-eighth of an inch long, somewhat incurved,
hugging the stem closely about, and those of one
"whorl" overlapping the bottom of the row next above
it. This gives the whole plant a decidedly spongy
quaHty to the sense of both sight and touch. It grows
on the rocks, nearly down to low-water mark. Color,
brownish olive. Height, three to five inches. It is
a perennial and fruits in winter. I found it and C.
spongiosus, growing together in great abundance, on
the low rocks, east of the first beach at Newport. I
also got several fine specimens of it at Martha's
Vineyard. It is said to belong to our whole New
England coast ; but I think it must be rare in our
northern waters, for 1 have collected Alg^ along the
shores of Salem, Marblehead and Nahant, several
il2 SEA MOSSES.
years, and have never found it growing there. None
of my correspondents have reported it north of Cape
Cod.
Cladostephus spongiosus, Ag.
This plant differs from the last by its shorter habit ;
l)y being more irregularly branched, the branches
spreading more widely, and having a thick, clumsy,
rambling appearance, and by the branchlets being
longer, irregularly whorled, and clothing the frond
in a denser, spongier fleece. It is not at all unlikely
that intermediate forms might be found which should
connect the extremes, typical of these two species, in
a single graduated series. My European plants
appear decidedly more " spongy " than the American.
Its local habitat is the same as that of C. vei'ticillatiis.
Sub-Oxdex.— ECTOCARFE^.
Genus.— ECTO CARPUS* Lyngb,
According to Dr. Farlow's list, this genus, in our
American waters, includes fifteen species. Of those
1 have selected five of the most common for our
study. These plants, like the Cladophorce in the
green Algae, and the Callit]ia77inia in the red, are
of capillary or hair-like fineness, and like them are
* Ectocarpus = External fruits.
OLIVE COLORED ALG/E. 113
composed of cells pat end to end in a single series.
The determination of species is made, in most cases,
by the appearance of the fruit masses, (j>ropagula) ,
and by the peculiarities of the branching. These
points can best be determined by the use of the
compound microscope, but they can be made out
with a good pocket lens. They are mostly parasitical
on other Algae, Fucus^ Chorda, Chordaria and
Zostera, etc. The color of the smaller forms is very
apt to be a fine olive green.
EcTOCARPus FiRMUS, Ag. {^E. Uttoralis, Harv.)
This is said to be the commonest species of the
genus on our coast, and grows parasitical on the
littoral Fiici. The tufts are of various lengths up to
ten or twelve inches, dense, filaments fine, interwoven,
much and irregularly l)ranched ; branches mostly
alternate, repeatedly divided, the divisions made at
acute angles, the upper ones opposite ; articulations
of branches almost as long as broad. The propagula
form elongated linear swellings in the substance of
the greater and lesser branches, many times longer
than broad. Color varies from olive green to brown.
Found at all seasons.
114 SEA MOSSES.
EcTOCARPus Farlowii, Thuret.
This is a shorter and somewhat coarser plant
than the preceding, growing in the . same situations
upon Fuc2is nodosits. In my specimens, the end of
the Fiicus is clothed, for the space of three inches
or more, with a dense, dark green mass of Ectocarpus
filaments, half an inch long. I have seen no detailed
description of the plant ; but perhaps its outward
appearance, as given above, being somewhat distinct
and well-marked, would serve most collectors as a
clue to identification, better than a fuller account of
the fruit and branching. I found it common at
Marblehead, in the summer. It is also found along
the coast north, as far as Peak's Island, Maine.
Ectocarpus siliculosus, Lyngb.
This plant is very common along our whole
eastern coast, and is found occasionally on the
Pacific shores. It grows on various substances be-
tween tides, but seems especially to affect the string-
like fronds of the Chordaria flagelliformis. The
color is mostly a yellowish green, but variable. Fronds
from three to six inches long, not entangled, filaments
very slender, and excessively branched, all the divisions
alternate with acute axils. The propagula are formed
by the transforming of a portion of the ultimate
OLIVE COLORED ALGyE. 115
ramuli, that portion commonly nearest the end, into
spore masses, which, under the glass, look not unlike
minute ears of com.
ECTOCARPUS VIRIDIS, HaRV.
This may be a mere variety of the last. It grows
in the same situation, but is much less common. The
color is a more pronounced green, and the frond is
decidedly more feathery, loose, open, and expanding,
than in E. siliculosus. The prop.igula are the same,
only that they are formed in the base of the ultimate
ramuli and so have the unchanged portion extend-
ing beyond the spore mass. Our figure in Plate IV.,
gives a very good representation of this beautiful
species.
ECTOCARPUS TOMENTOSUS, LyNGB.
This is a native of our northern waters. The
filaments are fine, twisted and matted together like
cords, or interwoven into a dense sponge-like
branching tuft. Articulations two or three times as
long as broad. Propagula, oblong, obtuse set on
the lower branches by a short stem. Color, from
yellov"sh olive to dark brown. It grows on various
substances between tides. It may be looked for
throughout the season,
116 SEA MOSSES.
Sub-order.— DI.CTYOSIPHON lE^.
Genus— DICTYOSIFBON* Grev
DiCTYOSIPHON FCENICULACEUS, GrEV.
This is our only species of tiiis genus. It grows
in rock pools and below tide, and occurs from L. I.
Sound northward, but is more common in our
northern waters. Frond filiform, about as thick as
a bristle ; harsh to the touch ; from six inches to
two feet long ; profusely and irregularly branched
on all sides from top to bottom. The primary
branches are long, and closely beset with secondary
branches which are also long and straight, and often
of hair-like tenuity. Color, a brownish olive, dark
when dry. It adheres pretty well to paper in dry-
ing. Mr. CoUins collected it from March to Sep-
tember, at Nahant and Nantasket. I found it not
uncommon at Marblehead, all summer, and Miss
Booth reports it in Peconic Bay, L. I. Others
have found it at Boston and Newport. It certainly
may be expected in favorable localities all along the
coast. It is not noted for its beauty as a herba-
rium specimen.
* Dictyosiphon = A netted tube.
OLIVE COLORED ALG^. 117
Sub-order — DESMARESTIEM.
Genus.— DESAfARESTIA* Lam.
Of this genus we have four species, divided
equally between the two oceans. The cyHndrical
and narrow forms belong to the Atlantic and the
flattened or strap-like forms are natives of the
Pacific. It is not a little singular that one species,
D. ligul.ita, should be very common on the eastern
shores of both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and
not found at all on the coast lying between, viz.,
the western shores of the Atlantic.
Desmarestia viridis. Lam.
This is a large and fine plant, growing from one
to three feet in hight, of a beautiful chestnut oliv*
color when fresh, turning to a dark green when
dry. It is found on rocks, stones, a.nd other Algae,
in tide pools near low water mark, and in deep
water. The frond is cylindrical or filiform, twice as
thick as a bristle in a plant two feet long, beset, at
rather remote intervals, with long, primary branches,
which come out in pairs exactly opposite each other
on the two sides of the main stem. These branches
are themselves branched in the same way by pairs
* Desmarestia was named for Desmarest, a French Naturalist.
118 SEA MOSSES.
of opposite secondary branches, and these again in
like manner by their branchlets. All the divisions
are long and the ultimate parts very fine and hair-
like. Indeed, a large and beautiful plant in my her-
barium presents an appearance not unlike that of
long, wavy tresses of hair. If it never received the
popular name of "Mermaid's hair," it is quite time
it was christened that. It is reported very common
along all our northern shores, from February to
November, and less common in southern waters in
the summer.
Desmarestia aculeata, Lam.
This plant is found the year around, growing at
low tide and in deep water. It is very common so
that special localities need not be named. Frond,
cylindrical at base, but soon flattening; in a plant a
foot and a half high, as thick as a sparrow's quill.
Branches, alternate, irregular, half forking, much flat-
tened, from one-twelfth to one-eighth of an inch wide
two or three times sub-divided. The young plants,
and apparently the younger parts of all the plants,
are clothed with opposite pencils of fine, beautiful
olive-green filaments, from one-sixteenth to one-half
an inch long. A larger plant before me, collected
at Marblehead, Mass., in August, has them very short ;
OLIVE COLORED ALG^. 119
and a smaller plant from the island of Spitzbergen,
collected July 23rd, has them half an inch or more
long.' When these pencils fall away, they are
replaced by short, sharp, awl-like spines, set regu-
larly and alternately on each edge of the flattened
branch, pointing forward. It is, perhaps, an arctic
plant, but it is found in temperate waters, south of
Cape Cod. It is said sometimes to attain a height
of six feet. It is an interesting plant, and the
young forms are very beautiful, and adhere nicely to
paper in mounting.
Desmarestia ligulata, Lam.
This is the most common California species, and
exceeds in interest, if not in beauty, either of our
Atlantic plants already named. It grows a foot or
two high, flat, one-fourth to one-half inch wide,
beset, at intervals, along the edges, by pairs of op-
posite flat branches. And these, again, are more
thickly clothed by shorter, flat branchlets, ser-
rated along the edges with sharp, forward -pointing
teeth.
Both the primary and secondary branches are
narrowed to a point at base and apex. The sub-
stance of the frond is thin and delicate ; the color,
a yellowish olive, in the specimens which I have
120 SEA MOSSES.
seen. It grows in great abundance, at low tide and
below, on rocks, along the whole California coast.
Mr. Cleveland says it is washed up from deep
water, and lies in great heaps on the beach, near
the Mexican boundary of Southern California.
Desmarestia latifrons,* Kutz.
This plant seems to occupy a middle ground be-
tween D. aculeata and D. ligulata, having branches
shorter and wider and less numerous than the former,
and much narrower and thicker than the latter.
The branching is alternate, like that of Z>. aculeata,
and the secondary branches have the same remote
alternate sharp spines of that species. In the frag-
ment of a plant before me, which is about six
inches long, the stem is one-tenth of an inch wide,
primary and secondary branches about the same.
Both main stem and prim.ary branches appear under
the lens to be " midribed." It is not a very rare
plant at Santa Cruz and in the north of California,
but grows at low- tide mark, on the rocks, at all
seasons. At Santa Barbara it is very rare, and has
not yet been found at San Diego.
Latifrons = A wide fi ond.
POLYSIPIIONIA BAILEVI, Ao;
PLATE VI i
OLIVE COLORED ALGuE. 121
Sub-order — PUNCTARIE^.
Genus.— FUNCTARIA* Grev.
PUNCl^ARIA LATIFOLIA,t GrEV.
Fronds, pale olive green ; thickish, membraneous,
soft and tender, more or less dotted with minute
spore masses, suddenly tapering at the bottom, from
one to three inches wide in the broadest point, and
from eight to twelve inches long, the proportions
the same in the smaller plants. When young, the
substance is thin and soft, and almost gelatinous to
the touch, being then covered with very short pel-
lucid, almost invisible hairs. In that state it is of
a light olive green color. When older, it gets
darker. The margin of the frond wavy, and in old
plants the substance of the frond is thicker and
more rigid. In that condition it will be distin-
guished from plants of the next species chiefly by
its sudden narrowing at the base.
It is a summer annual, growing between tides on
stones and x\lg3e. It will be met with most com-
monly in the var. Zoster (2, or P. tenuissima, of Har-
vey's " Nereis," a small form, not more than two or
* Punctaria = Dotted,
t Latifolia = Wide-leaf.
122 SEA MOSSES.
three inches long and one-fourth of an inch wide,
very thin and delicate, fringing both edges of a
blade of Zostera, or growing in the same manner
from the sides of a frond of Chorda filum. Mr.
Collins finds it in deep water and on Zostera, at
Revere, from April to July; Mrs. Davis, from
April to November, in rock pools everywhere about
Gloucester. I have a copy of the typical form
collected by Mr. A. R. Young, at College Point,
L. I., in May. It was collected by Mr. Hooper, at
Fort Hamilton, New York Bay, and at Flushing
Bay, by Prof. Bailey.
PUNCTARIA PLANTAGINEA,* GrEV.
Frond, dark brown, leathery, much attenuated at
base from near the middle, blunt or wedged-shaped
at the top, from six to twelve inches long and
from one to one and a half inches wide. It is a
summer annual, and grows on stones and other Algae,
between tide marks and below. It is not so com-
mon as the last, but I have it reported all alon^
our north eastern seaboard.
It does not usually adhere well to paper, and it
is far from being an inviting specimen to personj
whose interest in these plants is other than scientific.
* Plantaginea =; Like the Plantain.
OLIVE COLORED ALGJE. 123
Sub-order.— SCYTOSIPHONEJS.
Genus.— PHVLL/T/S* (J^u/z.), Le Jolis.
Phyllitis fascia, t KUTZ.
This is quite common along our rocky shores, at
all seasons, in tide pools near low-water mark. It
usually grows in tufts : a cylindrical stem gradually
expands into a long, flat, narrow frond, from one-
fourth to one inch wide, and from three to twelve
inches long. It is usually blunt at top, and, as just
said, attenuated below. My specimens are narrow,
with parallel sides, one-third of an inch wide and
twelve inches long. The color is a brownish olive,
and the substance membraneous, but not very thick.
My Californian correspondents report it very com-
mon along the whole extent of that coast.
Qkqx\\x%,— SCYTOSIPHON,% Lyngb.
SCYTOSIPHON I,OMENTARIUS, Ag.
This species grows in much the same situations
as the last, oftentmies in company with it, in the tide
pools. It is common on our eastern coast, and is
* Phylliiis= Leaf, like Hart's tongue.
t Fascia = A band.
X Scytosiphon = A leather tube.
124 SEA MOSSES.
reported the same in California. It grows from
eight to eighteen inches high, cylindrical, unbranched,
attenuated at top and bottom, one-fourth of an incli
in diameter, inflated, and sharply and definitely con-
stricted at irregular intervals, which gives it the
appearance when growing, of a string of small, narrow
bags tied together by the ends. Color, a brownish
or greenish olive. Substance, membraneous and soft.
* * * *
There are no more fitting words with which to
bid adieu to this modest- hued, homely, often coarse,
but always interesting group of plants, than these of
the Poet, who loves the sea and the
SEA WEED.
"When descends on the Atlantic
The gigantic
Storm wind of the Equinox,
Landward in his wrath he scourges
The toiUug surges.
Laden with sea weed from the rocks.
Ever drifting, drifting, drifting,
On the shifting,
Currents of the restless main;
'Till in sheltered coves, and reaches
Of sandy beaches,
All have found repose again.'"
Longfellow.
'(?f^-
KEY TO THE
GENERA OF THE ATLANTIC COAST
RED ALG^.
Frond membraneous.
I. Fi-ond Midribed.
(a.) Plants small, with regular veins from
midrib to margin of frond. Delesseria. //O A*
(^.) Plants large, without veins, midrib slender, v^
Frond thin, brilliant pink, more or less
sprinkled with darker colored dots.
Grmnellia. ''^
2. Frond Stalked.
Membrane small, short, forked, growing
on the apex of branching, cylindrical
stems. Phyllophora.
Frond plain, Membrane smooth, without
stalk, midrib, or vein.
(a.) Frond large, thickish, mostly wedge or
fan shaped, palmately divided, some-
times strap-shaped. " Dulse."
Rhodymenia.
(^.) Frond thin, tapering to top and bottom,
bearing on the edges toothed frondleti
of the same shape. Calliblepharis.
126 SB A MOSSES.
11. Frond flattened or compressed.
I . Fro7id forked.
(^.) Small, short, wedge-shaped, once or twice
forked,
(i.) Frond thick, smooth, purple or green.
" Irish Moss," Chondrus.
(ii.) Frond channeled, more or less covered
with papillcB, dark. Gigartifia.
(iii.) Frond stalked, thin, narrow, red.
Gymnogongrus.
(^.) Frond long, narrow, partly cylindrical,
many times divided. Gracilaria.
2. Frond pinnately divided.
Plant small, pinnae and pinnulae, fine
and set in one plane. Ptiloia.
3. Frond irregtclarly divided.
Frond forking and branching irregularly,
profusely, mostly in one plane, from a
marginal point. Euthora.
Ill Frond filiform or thread-like.
(From size of sewing cotton to that of
wTapping twine, branched).
1. Plants whose ultimate branchlets taper to both
ends,
{a.) Plants with one main or leading stem.
KEY TO THE GENERA. 127
(i.) Main stem mostly undivided, bare at
base, clothed above with simple un-
branched ramuli. Halosaccion.
(ii.) Robust, coarse, profusely branched,
branches often ending in twining
tendrils, dull brown or purple, very
common ; six to ten inches high. n \\
Cystoclonium.
(iii.) Smaller, finer, branches shorter, full red
or pink, rare. Gloiosiphonia.p *'' '
{b.) Plants without leading stem.
(i.) Large, smooth, robust, two or three times
divided ; ramuli long, slender at point,
slightly curved ; reddish purple to pink ;
prominent fruit vessels in ramuli. Plant
six to twelve inches high. Rhabdonia.
(ii.) Small, slender ; ramuli long, curved ;
beautiful delicate pink. Plants three
inches high. Loincntaria.
(iii.) Larger, l^rownish, slender or robust ;
branches long, ramuli very short, often
minute. Chondriopsis.
(iv.) Slender, brown, branches long, bare and
hooked at the ends ; ramuli short.
Hypnea.
128 SEA MOSSES.
2. Frond regula^'ly forking.
(^.) Long, elastic, worm-like, axils wide and
rounded. Nemalion.
{b.) Short, stiff, black, widely forking, uniform
size, not adhering to paper. Three or
four inches high. Polyides.
(^.) Same outline, soft, adheres, rosy red.
Scinaia.
3. Plants clothed with fine hairs.
{a.) Stem robust; branches few, long and O
mostly simple. All parts thickly clothed
with brilliantly colored pink or purple
fine hair, like " Chenille." Dasya.
{p.) Stem and branches slender, several times
divided; hairs much p^er, shorter and
less abundant. Spyridia.
Fronds many times and finely divided, robust
or slender, mostly dark or brow7i.
(a.) Ultimate ramuli, often in clumps or ''
minute brushes, black or brown. '
Rhodomela.
{b.) Plants variously, but profusely branched,
mostly fine, often arborescent, fruit
vessels pear-shaped; black, reddish or
light brown, Polysiphonia.
,^
^'
.o'-
lO)
KEY TO THE GENERA. 120
5. Frond consisting of visibly articulated, or
jointed filaments.
Slender or robust, branching or forking;
filaments showing alternately white and
red, or light and dark bands. -^
Ceramium.- ^
6. Frond stiff, wiry, black. 1
Intricately and irregularly branched, some-
times bleached white. Ahnfeltia.
7. Frond sto7iy and hard.
Purple to white. Corallina.
IV. Frond capillary.
(Composed of a single series of cells
placed end to end).
1. Cells long.
Frond divided by regular, narrow forkings,
fan-shaped, level topped; color pale,
delicate pink. Griffithsia.
2. Cells short.
Plants mosdy small, often shaped like
a miniature shrub; much branched,
final divisions as fine as cobweb; color •
brilliant red or i)ink, the most beautifuM,
of plants. Callithamnion,
"^©^^
f'
KEY TO THE GENERA OF THE PACIFIC
COAST.*
I. Frond Membraneous.
I. Frond plain, mostly undivided, smooth, or
roughened only by seed vessels.
{a.) Thick, large, reddish brown.
Sarcophyllis.
(b.) Thinner, large, purplish color. Iridcea.
(<;.) Undivided, branched or cleft; brown,
purple, or green. Grateloupia.
2. Frond thick, covered with pappili.
Undivided, forked or irregularly branched,
deep red, or purple. Gigartina.
3. Frond narrower, thick, leathery, smooth.
Sword-shaped leaflets from side or end
of main frond ; dark red brown.
Prionitis Andersonii.
4. Frond much divided.
(a.) Thin, deeply lobed, or forked, mostly
dark red ; not adhering well.
Nitophyllum .
{b.) Thicker, more intricately divided, more
brilliant red color, adheres.
Callophyllis.
Only those Genera which have species peculiar to the Pacific Coast are in-
cluded in this Key, the rest will be found in the other.
KEY TO THE GENERA. 131
r,. Fronds regularly forking, thin, narrow ; sides of
lobes parallel, ends rounded.
(</.) Dull red, not adhering. Rhodymenia.
(/\) Brilliant red; interrupted midrib of darker
color, or fruit dots scattered over the
surface ; adheres. Stenogramma.
II. Frond f attened or compressed.
I. Frond pinnately branched.
(a.) Frond narrow, dense, hard, dark red.
Primary branches, alternate or forking;
secondary, short, tapering to both ends,
pinnate. Prionitis lanceolata.
{b.'i Frond narrow, cartilaginous, divided into
several branches ; pinnae and pinnulae,
alternate, blunt at apex ; dull purple.
Faureneia.
(c.) Pinnae, arranged on the edges of the
main stem and long branches, short, the
opposite ones unlike. Ptilota.
(d.) Frond very narrow, horny when dry; main
branches irregular; pinnae and pinnulae
exactly opposite, with wide rounded
axils, ultimate pinnae tapering to both
ends ; purple, often faded. Gelidium,
132 SEA MOSSES.
2. Fronds irregularly branched.
(d5.) Frond leathery, narrow, very dark reddish
brown; branches in one plane, flat,
narrowed at base and top, bent sword-
shape, and often bordered with fine
spines; eight to twelve inches high.
Farlowia.
(b.) Plants smaller and narrower, branching
much the same as the last; secondary
branches, bordered with incurved spine-
like ramuli, much attenuated at both
ends. Color, very dark red. Pikea.
3. Frond with leading stem.
Branches long, alternate ; secondary, short,
alternate ; ultimate ramuli, alternate, in-
curved, awl-shaped, not constricted at
% base. Microcladia.
III. Frond filiform or cylindrical.
I. Frond coarse, thick as pack thread.
(a.) Frond divided by regular forkings, several
times repeated ; horny when dry, dark.
Ahnfeltia.
(d.) Frond with leading stem, branches short,
stout, tapering at both ends. Clear red.
Rhabdonia,
KEY TO THE GENERA. 133
{c.) Stem branched and forked; end of
branches beset with many short, stout,
oval or obtuse ramuli. Chylodadia,
2. Frond finer and more elaborately divided,
{a.) Stem robust, branches irregular; ultimate
ramuli, clustered in bunches; black.
Rhodomela.
{d.) Frond delicate, many times finely and
pinnately divided ; color, brown or black.
Polysipho7iia.
(c.) Frond delicate, finely pinnated, brilliant
pink- Callithamnion.
The night is calm and cIoudIes%
And still as still can be,
And the stars come forth to listen
To the music of the sea.
They gather, and gatner, and gather*
Until they crowd the sky,
And listen in breathless silence.
To the solemn litany.
It begins in rocky caverns,
As a voice that chants alone
To the pedals of the organ
In monotonous undertone;
And anon from shelving beaches.
And shal'ow sands beyond
In snow-white robes uprising,
The ghostly choirs respond.
And sadly and unceasing
The mournful voice Vngs on,
And the snow-white cooirs still answer,
Christe Eleisoot
Longfellow*
CHAPTER IV.
BED ALG^,
&^-^-»^^@^®<}@^^->^
CHAPTER IV.
Sub-c\^ss.— RBODOSFOR^ or FLORIDE^.
E have now come to the Red " Sea Mosses."
They are more highly organized than the
plants we have been considering. This is apparent in
the greater variety of form, and complexity of structure,
as well as in the higher and more elaborate machinery
for the reproduction process, which is seen in them.
The Red "Sea Mosses" are characterized by the
presence of two different kinds of seeds, or spores.
One kind is produced by a process analogous to that
by which seeds and fruit are produced in the flowering
plants; that is, by the presence and co-operation
of a staminate and pistilate element. This is the
136 SEA MOSSES.
sexual fruit, and usually appears in minute clusters
upon the branches of fertile fronds, or else encased
in little egg-shaped baskets, or other receptacles. It
is also not unfrequently found embedded in the sub-
stance of membraneous fronds, or held in wart-like
protuberances which arise from their surface.
The other or asexual spores are produced, ap-
parently, by a change in some of the vegetable cells
of the plant. They always appear in groups of four,
hence their name, '■'■ Tetraspores'' or '' Tetragonidia.'"
The original, or " Mother cell," seems to part its
contents invariably into four secondary cells, and each
of these is capable of reproducing the plant. They
are found in various situations, but, except in some of
the lower plants of the group, always occur embedded
in the substance of the frond. It is a rule, which ^o
far as I know, has no exception, that the two kinds
of fruit never appear upon the same individual plant.
The Red Mosses will no doubt make up the prin-
cipal part of all your collections. Certainly they are,
as a general thing, more interesting and more beautiful,
and appear in much greater variety of form, than those
of the other classes. Some of them are marvelously
fine and delicate, and make the most exquisite and
fairy-like pictures when spread out upon paper. The
wonder is, how such fragile things can find the means
RED ALG^. 137
and opportunity to live and grow in the rough, tumul-
tuous and stormy sea. But you will not long have
been an observer of the ways of Old Ocean without
often seeing what the Poet has so finely told in the
following lines :
SEA TANGLE.
"Go show to earth your power!" the East Wind cried
Commanding; and the swift submissive seas,
In ordered files, like liquid mountains, glide.
Moving from sky to sky with godlike ease.
Below a cliff, where mused a little maid.
It struck. Its voice in thunder cried "Beware!"
But, to delight her, instantly displayed
A fount of showering diamonds in the air.
****** The wave passed on;
Touching each shore with silver-sandled feet.
But tossed, in flying, in the sun which shone,
A handful, to her lap, of sea-blooms sweet.
More delicate than forms that frost doth weave
On window panes, are Ocean's filmy brood:
Remembering the awful horns they leave,
Their hues to that dim underworld subdued.
Fair spread on pages white, I saw arrayed
These fairy children of a sire so stern ;
Their beauty charmed me; while the little maid.
Spoke of her new found love with cheeks which bum.
" So grand, so terrible, how could I know
He cared for these?" she faltered,— " darlings dear!
That his great heart could nurture them and glow
With such a love beneath such looks severe?"
138 SBA MOSSBS.
Like God, the Ocean, too, the least can heed,
Yearn in a moon-led quest to farthest shores,
And fondle in delight its smallest weed.
Yet look to Him it mirrors and adores.
y. G. Appleton.
Order.— RHODOMELE^.
Gierwi^.— DASYA* Ag.
DaSYA ELEGANS,t AO.
Of this genus but one species is found on our
Atlantic coast, within the geographical limits which
this book is intended to cover. But, happily, this
is the most interesting and beautiful representative
of the genus, known to our American flora, viz., the
Dasya elegans.
It is sometimes popularly called " chenille," be-
cause in the water it looks very like a piece of
that sort of finery. No one acquainted with the
appearance of chenille, would, for an instant, mistake
a specimen of this elega?it Dasya, when seen float-
ing in its native element. Out of the water, lodged
wet upon the rocks, or mixed with other Algae, it
looks more like a stringy mass of pink or purple
* Dasya = Hairy,
t Elegans = Elegant,
RED ALG.^. 139
jelly. The artist has made an excellent representa-
tion of a beautiful specimen of this plant, in our
Plate V.
The body of the plant is a robust, sparingly but
irregularly branched cord, from six inches to two or
three feet long, and from once to three times the
thickness of a pack-thread. The branches are long,
and mostly undivided, and the whole plant is clothed
with a fine, delicate body of purple-lake colored
hairs, from an eighth to a third of an inch in
length. This gives it the appearance of chenille.
When a little faded, this fine, silky plush assumes a
delicate or bright pink color. The plant grows
attached, by a discoid hold-fast, to rocks, stones,
wood-work, and other Algae, from low-tide mark to
a depth of several fathoms. It is not found north
of Cape Cod, but may be looked for in all waters
south of that point. I have collected it, in July,
at Fort Hamilton, and along the beach toward
Coney island, in great abundance — splendid fronds,
two feet long — along- with that most brilHant Amer-
ican Alga Grinnellia Americana. I have collected
it also in fine condition at Newport, east of the
first beach, as late as October 4th. In a breezy
but not unpleasant walk, which I took along the
shore from Falmouth to Wood's Holl, beneath a.
140 SEA MOSSES.
gray, November sky, and the sea a steel blue, cold
and angry, I found this among the most plentiful
of the late autumnal "Sea Mosses." Displayed with
taste, it makes an elegant picture on paper. A
comparatively light pressure should be put on it at
first, in drying, else its tender frond will be crushed
and ruined.
Genus.— FOLYSIFHONIA* Grev.
This is the largest genus of Red Algae. Agardh
in his latest work, enumerates no less than 129 un-
doubted species. Many more have been proposed
by other writers. About thirty species belong to
our American flora. But several of them are pecu-
liar to the sub-tropical region of Florida, and will
not come within our reach. Others are too rare or
insignificant to be enumerated in this work. But
all such as are likely to be met with, at all
common, will be described. The color of these
plants ranges between the browns and a full black;
only three, herein described, show traces of red :
P. urceolata^ commonly, and P. violacea and P.
Olneyi, occasionally. On the fertile fronds, the
beautiful, little egg-shaped fruit-holders will be easily
♦ Polysiphonia == Many tubes ; referring to the internal structure of the
frond.
RED ALG^. 141
discovered with the naked eye. The FolysiphonicB
form a marked feature of the marine flora of every sea.
POLYSIPHONIA FASTIGIATA, GrEV.
The pointed PolysipJionia is very common on the
north Atlantic coast, growing as a parasite on Fiiciis
nodostis, and rarely on F. vesiculosus. Prof. Kj ell-
man reports it growing on Halosaccion ra7neiitaceum,
in Spitzbergen. It looks not unlike a little dark
brown or black ball or tassel, attached to the ends
of the Furtts, from three-fourths of an inch to one
and one-half inches in diameter. Examined closely
it will be seen to be a dense tuft of stiff, wire-like
filaments, many times forked from the base, with
wide axils. The apices being nearly all the same
length, the tufts look ''clipped" all around like a
thorn bush. In mounting, it does not adhere to
paper. But thinly spread out, in the almost perfect
circle which its black frond so naturally assumes, it
makes a very pretty appearance on the white paper.
It may be found at all seasons and so common
that I need not name special localities.
POLYSIPHONIA URCEOLATA, GrEV.
The specific name refers to the fruit -vessel, which
is thought to resemble a little pitcher or jug. The
142 SEA MOSSES.
plant is very common throughout the season on the
northern shores of both the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans.
It is somewhat variable in appearance, yet when
once seen, it is ever afterwards easily recognized.
The filaments are much finer and sotter than in the
last species, and grow in a loose tuft, four to eight
inches high. When taken from the water the plant
is flaccid and silky, with a deep, full, rich red color.
But when mounted on paper, dry, the filaments are
rigid and bristly to the touch, and turn to a dark
brown or black with a reddish shade, generally, in
places, or over the whole plant. The main stems
are from one to three times the thickness of a
human hair. They are much branched. But the
branches, though somewhat spiney below, do not
themselves branch till they have attained a consider-
able length, when they divide and sub-divide rapidly,
making the upper portion of the frond assume a
dense and bushy look.
In spreading out on paper, it naturally takes a
fan -shaped outline, with a tendency in the main
branches to separate from each other, and in the
finer varieties to appear twisted. When dried and
pressed, there is often a glossy and silk-like appear-
ance to the specimen.
RED ALGJE. 143
The variety formosa is really very beautiful as
its name implies. It is distinguished from the typical
form, by its much finer and silkier filaments, and
by its retaining its rich, red-brown color when dried
on paper.
The open variety, patens, is not uncommon, is
more rigid than the typical form, and its end branch-
lets are recurved. The species grows on rocks,
and sometimes on the stems of Laminaria fiexicattlts,
in pools, and not far below low tide. I found it
very plentiful in July and August, floating in the
sea, by the rocky shore at Clifton, Marblehead,
and took scores of fine specimens, including every
variety of form. I have some exquisite plants of
the var. formosa, taken by my friend, A. R. Young,
at College Point, L. I., as eariy as May 6th.
POLYSIPHONIA HaRVEYI, BaIL.
This is a common and very distinct species. I
have found it in our northern waters, growing most
commonly upon Zoskra, or " Eel-grass." In the water
it has a marked bushy, or shrub-like aspect, with
stiff branches spreading out widely in every direction,
so that the plant makes a globose outline.
Each tuft is a single frond, stout at the base,
as thick as a bristle, but the parts gradually atten-
144 SBA MOSSES,
uating as they branch. It grows to the height of
from one to three inches, and sometimes more. I
have found it at Wood's Holl, five inches high. It
is invariably dark brown or black on paper, does
not colapse when taken from the water, and is
covered pretty thickly, main stem and branches,
with thorn-like, simple or branched spines, one-tenth
of an inch or less long. The arietina, or "ram's
horn " variety, has the end branchlets and spines
recurved or hooked. At Peconic Bay, Harvey says,
the natives call this variety " Nigger hair." I have
found the common form plentiful at Silver Spring,
Providence River, Wood's Holl, and Marblehead, in
July and August. Miss Booth reports it at Peconic
Bay, in September. Mr. Collins, at Lynn beach, on
Zostera, as late as October, and Mrs. Davis finds
it all summer in the " Mill Pond," at Gloucester.
POLYSIPHONIA OlNEYI, HaRV.
It is agreed by Dr. Farlow and Prof. Eaton
that this is but an extreme variety of P. Harveyi,
and Dr. Farlow is of the opinion that both species
are identical with the older European species, P.
spinulosa^ Grev. P. Olneyi differs from P. Harveyi, in
being a somewhat larger plant, composed of much
softer, and finer filaments, longer and straighter
RED ALG^. 145
branches^ often with a very decided and sometimes
even brilliant pink color, though the more common
color is purple brown. It is common in Long
Island Sound on Zostera, and Dr. Farlow gives the
popular name for it there as "Doughballs."
POLYSIPHONIA VARIEGATA,* AG.
This plant has something the same habit as F.
Olneyi, only that it is larger and more robust, grow-
ing often to the height of six to ten'^ inches. Start-
ing at the base with a filament no thicker than a
bristle, a half an inch up, it divides into two or more
widely spreading branches. These again divide in
the same way into long unclothed branchlets.
Within an inch of the extremity of the frond,
sometimes half way back, all the branches rapidly
divide, into long, silky filaments, of a light brown
color. The normal appearance of the plant on
paper, then, is that of a quarter or third seg-
ment of a wheel, with the bare spokes radiating to
a rim an inch or so wide, sometimes half the
width of the frond, which is made up of these
brown pencils of fine capillary filaments. It is quite
unmistakable when once seen. It grows parasitical
on Zoster a. It is said to be a winter plant in
* Variegata •=■ Variegated or parti-colored.
146 SEA MOSSES.
Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, but is found
common along the southern shores of New York
and New England in summer. I found it abundant
in Providence River and at Onset Bay, and once
in Danversport, Mass., the only time, I believe, it
has ever been seen growing north of Cape Cod.
POLYSIPHONIA ELONGATA,* GrEV.
The three Polysiphonice to be next described have,
according to the books, so many points of resem-
blance that you will be at a loss to distinguish them
apart if you depend upon the technical account
which the books give. And yet, when you have
once seen them, side by side, you will never again
have any difficulty in recognizing them, and you will
wonder why it is that written descriptions cannot
make clear differences which are so obvious to the
eye. The color of the three is much the same,
running from a dark brown, in old specimens of P.
fibrillosa, through several shades of light brown to a
pink in some plants of both F. violacia and P. elon-
gata. I will try to point out the distinguishing
marks of the latter species, P. elongata :
I. The main stem is robust, cartilagenous, coarse
as a pack-thread, and under the pocket lens visibl)
Elongata = Elongated.
RED ALG^. 147
Jointed in the upper half, as are also all the branches.
Sometimes there is a main leading stem and some-
times not. The branches are irregularly placed, but
divide and sub-divide in a manner between forking
and branching. 2. The axils of the sub-divisions
are narrow, so that the branchlets seem to cluster
together. 3. Owing to the great length of the
secondary branches and branchlets, the plant gives
the impression of reaching out and trying to extend
itself. 4. The branches seem to maintain their orig-
inal thickness almost to the tips. 5. On the ulti-
mate branchlets will be found many short ramuli,
which taper to base aad apex like those of Chon-
driopsis temiissijna. 6. Growing mostly through the
same regions as P. violacea, it is yet, as compared
with that species, if not distinctly rare, certainly
very infrequent.
The winter form of this plant, when the finer
branchlets are fallen away, is an exaggeration of
some of its summer aspects. The great length of
its bare, slender, unclothed branches gives it a pecu-
liar and really uninteresting appearance. In this
state the natives call it "lobster horns," or "lob-
ster claws," because of its supposed resemblance to
the long, slender antennce. of that creature. The
winter plant very imperfectly ac^heres to paper.
148 SBA MOSSES,
This is a deep-water species, and is reported
as not common all along the coast from New York
to Gloucester.
POLYSIPHONIA VIOLACEA, GrEV.*
This is by far our most common Polysiphonia^
considerably outranking even P. ui'ceolata. It grows
everywhere on the rocks and on several other Algae, in
pools and in deep water, as well as just below tide.
I take it often as it comes in upon the waves, with
my long-handled dipper, picking out the plants I want,
from among the hundreds which go floating by, up and
down.
The stem is once or twice as thick as a bristle.
Beautiful plants may be found, not more than two
or three inches high ; but plants from twelve to eighteen
inches high, are by no means uncommon.
The distinguishing marks of the species are mainly
these : i . The presence of a leading stem, branched
all around in all the fronds. Sometimes there will
seem to be two or three main stems. But this appear-
ance arises from the extraordinary development of
some of the lower branches. 2. The form of the
primary branches, which are long and somewhat widely
spreading at the base, but become regularly shorter
♦ Violacea = Violet colored.
RED ALG^. 149
towards the top of the plant. 3. The secondary and
remaining branches, which are short, alternately much
divided and subdivided again and again, until they
terminate in very slender ramuli, which form feathery
brown and sometimes violet tufts at the ends, constituting
the chief beauty of the plant. 4. Consequent upon
this method of branching, the plant has a marked
tendency to assume perfect arborescent forms. I have
plenty of plants a foot or more high, which almost
exactly resemble the great oaks and maples of the
forest, and others which are perfect miniature images
of the firs and pines, with their regular, tapering, cone-
like outline. Our figure in Plate VI., which is a very
perfect copy of a plant in my herbarium, could easily
be mistaken for a good picture of a forest tree. 5.
The stem and main branches are inarticulate. 6. The
universal distribution and great plentifuhiess of the
species along our whole eastern coast.
It is an extremely variable plant, and yet the type
seems to be as well adhered to as in most Algae. Many
plants, especially those growing in deep water, are
very robust and bushy. On the whole it is our most
interesting and beautiful Atlantic Polysiphonia.
POLYSIPHONIA FIBRILLOSA, GREV.
This is by far the rarest of this group of Poly-
150 SEA MOSSES.
siphonicE. If found at all north of Cape Cod, it must
be very rare. I found some good specimens of it at
Wood's Holl, the last day of July, and Dr. Farlow
reports it at Newport, and Noank, Conn. Miss Booth
at Orient Point, and in Long Island Sound. It is a
summer annual, and grows in deep water, from threQ
to six and eight inches high. The main stem in the
larger plants is as thick as a pack thread at the base,
but it is soon lost in the multitude of long, large
spreading branches, which it throws out on every side,
so that there is no leading stem in this as in the last
species. The primary branches are long and are them-
selves irregularly and profusely branched, into secondary
branches, which are much shorter. These again branch
in the same way, and the tertiary branches are usually
covered with spines, not unlike those of P. Harveyi.
But the spines are clothed with a dense growth of
colorless fibril Is, so fine as to be individually almost
or quite invisible, but in the mass, border all the
branchlets, as they are displayed on paper, with a
light brown " halo " or '' mist." This is the character-
istic point, and will identify the plant unmistakably,
for it is almost always present. The plant gets its
specific name from these fibrills. The color of the
plant ranges from a light to a dark brown, often even
to near a full black. In general appearance the plant
RED ALG^. 151
is not unlike an enlarged, exaggerated, and very spiney
F. Harveyi. Unlike P. elongata, the branches are
robust, somewhat bent at various sharp turns and
angles, and the parts rapidly diminish in size from base
to apex, as they throw out branches and branchlets.
POLYSIPHONIA NIGRESCENS,* GrEV.
This is an extremely variable plant, not uncommon
along our whole east coast, and identified by one
or two distinguishing marks. It is a perennial and
grows in rock pools and deep water. It is almost
quite black, or very dark brown, when mounted and
dry. It has a leading stem, though this is not always
easy to make out ; it may, however, usually be detected,
as more or less prominent. It is not commonly larger
than a bristle. A microscopical dissection of it, shows
it to consist of from twelve to eighteen tubes, arranged
around a central tube, a singular diversity of habit
in a species whose generic congeners are generally
so constant to their type, in this respect. Harvey says
the best general marks of the species are its many
tubed internodes of moderate length, easily visible
with a lens ; and its decompound regularly pinnate
method of branching. The branches divide and sub-
divide," alternately twice or thrice in a very regular
* Nigrescens = black.
152 SEA MOSSES.
way. This constitutes the chief beauty, as it is the
most conspicuous peculiarity of the plant.
The ultimate ramuli of the young plants, and of
the young parts of the old ones, are apt to be fibrilU-
iferous, in a manner not unlike F. fibrillosa, but the
method of branching and the general aspect of the
plant will easily distinguish it from that.
It is reported all along the coast from Halifax to
New York. Miss Booth found it rare at Peconic
Bay. I found many specimens of it at Wood's Holl,
but took none at Newport, all summer. During several
years' collecting at Marblehead, I do not remember
to have seen it there, though. Mr. Collins finds it
abundant along that coast, and Mrs. Davis collects
it all summer, on Canal Beach, Gloucester.
POLYSIPHONIA BaILEYI, Ag.
The three following California members of this
gen 'IS which I shall undertake to give an account of,
I have put by themselves, not on account of natural
affinity, but for convenience of describing them. And
yet they are not far apart in the natural system. This
is certainly a very distinct and well marked species,
like P. fastigiata, one which when once seen can never
be forgotten, or be henceforth unrecognized.
It grows from three to six inches high, the stem
RED ALG^. 153
at first nearly round, more than twice as thick as a
bristle, soon flattened and then immediately and
irregularly much branched. All the branches spring
from the edges of the flattened stem, and the branches
themselves being flattened in the same plane with the
stem, and, giving out branchlets along their edges, the
whole plant is built up in one plane. The main
branches spread widely, and are irregularly placed.
But the secondary branches are very regularly alternate,
the one-tenth of an inch or so apart. Toward the
base of the branches, in all the old or full grown
plants, these branchlets will be found broken off,
leaving nothing but short stumps. The branchlets
themselves consist of a short stem, one-eighth to one-
half an inch long, clothed on each side and at the
top all around with very short, alternate simple or
compound awl-shaped, incurved ramuli. These branch-
lets are generally about the same length along the
sides of the branches, but here and there one will
shoot out beyond the others, and sometimes it will
put out branchlets like a primary branch.
Dr. Anderson reports it scarce at Santa Cruz, on
rocky beaches, all the year around. Mrs. Bingham,
and Dr. Dimmick, find it very common, thrown up
on the beach, and growing on small rocks, in all
seasons, at Santa Barbara. Mr. Cleveland reports it
154 SEA MOSSES.
common at San Diego. It is among the most com-
mon forms that come to me from my correspondents
on the Pacific coast. The color is a full black. It
adheres very imperfectly to paper.
The artist has very excellently represented a frond
of this species, in Plate VIII.
POLYSIPHONIA PARASITICA, GrEV.
This species in many respects, and especially in
general aspect and outline, resembles the last, but
differs from it by being smaller, of a much finer
and more delicate substance, and lighter color, which
is usually a light reddish brown. I have never seen
typical forms of this species over two inches high.
The figure in Plate VII, excellently well pictures
not only the color but every characteristic feature of
this very beautiful plant. The stem, branches and
branchlets are all flattened and branch from the two
edges, primary branches irregularly and very widely,
secondary regularly, widely, alternately. The secondary
branches are mostly little plumes, or themselves
bearers along their edges of little plumes. The
branching of all the small parts, even to the
minutest, is regularly alternate. This gives the plant
a very delicate, feathery appearance, very greatly like
the finer fronds of Ptilota plumosa. My correspond-
RED ALG.^. 155
ents report it extremely common in Southern Cali-
fornia, but somewhat rare in the north, growing upon
the large rocks and upon other Algae, and in tide
pools, all the year around.
Variety dendtoidea, differs more in appearance
from the normal form than do some fully differ-
entiated species, and yet, after a careful examination,
you will find that the difference consists fundamentally
in the branching being made at a much more acute
angle in the variety than in the typical form. The
frond stretches out to a considerably greater length,
four or five inches sometimes, "long, slim and slender"
in appearance. The main branches are placed at irreg-
ular intervals, but the secondary, at regular intervals,
alternate. From the extreme narrow angle, at which
the parts branch, they all appear to hug close to the
main stems, which gives the slender, narrow look to
the frond, and effectually prevents the beautiful
plumose aspect, which is seen in the who'.e plant,
and in its smallest parts, in the normal form. The
color of this variety is a full black, or a very dark
brown. In the young parts of both varieties, the
interior joints of the fronds may be easily seen with
a pocket lens. This variety seems to be even more
common along the whole coast than the normal form.
It does not adhere to paper.
156 SEA MOSSES.
POLYSIPHONIA WOODII, HaRV.
Although this plant seems to be built on the same
general plan as the other two California species,
already described, it is yet sufficiently distinct to be
not only a good species, but also easily recognized.
The stem is. perhaps, twice the size of a bristle,
divided from near the bottom into loug, spreading
branches, the whole plant being from four to six
inches high. All the parts are flattened, the younger
visibly articulate, and branch from the edges in one
plane. The secondary branches also separate with
wide axils, but give out their branches at narrower
angles, while the ultimate, awl-shaped ramuli are much
inclined to be incurved, rarely to spread widely. The
plant varies much in particular respects, depending
much, I find, upon whether it bear the sexual or
asexual fruit, or be sterile ; but the difference usually
consists in the lengthening or shortening of the parts
of the plants, some being thick, dense and bushy,
others slender, spreading and feathery. It is very
common at all seasons. Dr. Anderson says, at Santa
Cruz, growing chiefly on Macrocysfis, and, therefore,
of course, in deep water. Dr. Dimmick collects it
on the beach at Santa Barbara, and Mrs. Bingham
gets It there, early in the season, upon Halidrys,
also. It adheres well to paper and makes, in most
RED ALG^. 157
cases, a very pretty specimen. The color is a light
brown.
Qenus.— RHODOMELA* Ag,
Rhodomela subfusca, Ag.
The ^ark brown Rhodomela is a common plant
along our shores, from New York northward. It
seems to be quite at home in all northern seas, as
it has been found in Nova Zembla, and the Ochotsch
Sea, as well as in all northern Europe and America.
The ripe, robust, black, typical form is far from
handsome ; but the young plants, which go under
the variety names of Rochii and gracilis, are ex-
tremely beautiful. It is a perennial, and its winter
and summer aspects differ greatly. In the winter
all the finer portions of the frond fall away, leaving
the long, lateral branches, and the main stem stand-
ing stiff, naked, dark and ungainly. But in the
spring and early summer, when it is clothed in a
new growth of delicate brown branchlets, it is a very
graceful and charming plant.
It is found attached, by a thin discoid hold-
fast, to rocks, stones, and shells, near or below
* P-hodonjela Red-blade
158 SEA MOSSES.
low-water mark The fronds are from six to twelve
inSies high, cylindrical, as thick as a pack-thread,
in full-grown plants, much slenderer in others, fine
as thread or hair in young plants, and in var.
Rochii. In the common form, the main stem and
branches are cartilaginous, stiff, and when dry, hard
and harsh, and quite black. From the leading stem,
which runs to the top of the plant, the branches
spread out on all sides, the lower being the longest,
often as long as the main stem — gradually short-
ening towards the top. The branches are all more
or less naked below. But, towards the end, they
divide and sub-divide rapidly in alternate ramifica-
tions, so that the small branchlets are much
crowded, and, on paper, the primary and secondary
branches seem thereby to terminate in little brooms.
This is true only of the full-grown, typical forms,
and of the var. gracilis^ a most excellent representa-
tion of which appears in Plate IX. The normal form
differs from this only in being more robust, of a
less regular habit, and of a much darker color.
The var, Rochii is much finer and softer, and the
end branches are quite separate, but tipped with a
very fine pencil of hairs. This is the early spring
form, and is found chiefly south of Cape Cod. I
have an exquisite specimen collected by Mr. Young,
RirODOMELA Sl'HFUSCA, Ai;'- var. GRACILIS
PLATE IX.
RED ALG^. 159
of Brooklyn, as early as March 27th. Var. gracilis
is more common in our northern waters, and ap-
proaches more nearly the typical form. The speci-
mens in my herbarium are of a rich, slightly reddish
brown color. Whoever will take the trouble to look
for this plant in the early spring, will find it one
of the most beautiful of our marine flora.
Rhodomela larix,* Ag.
This and the next species grow on the California,
and north western coast. R. larix is an arctic
species which has made its way as far south as
Santa Cruz and Monterey, but appears south of there,
only as a rarity. It has been found at Santa Bar-
bara, by Mrs. Bingham, in May ; and in January
and March, by Mr. Cleveland, thrown up from deep
water at La Jolla Point, San Diego. It was brought
from Nootka Sound, by Menzies, more than three-
quarters of a century ago, and described and fig-
ured by Turner, in his unequalled " Historia
Fucorum." Dr. Anderson reports it as very plen-
tiful at Santa Cruz, and northward, growing there
at all seasons, on the shelving rocks of soft sand-
stone or shale.
The frond is robust, cylindrical, thick as a
Larix = Laic
100 SEA MOSSES.
crow's quill, from six to fourteen inches long ; at
first unbranched, but soon much branched all around,
with limbs of various length, which stand out
straight from the main stem. Branches from one to
four and five inches long, according to the size oi
the plant.
The distinguishing mark of the species is the
presence upon both stem and branches, of little
tufts, or clusters of incurved ramuli. They are
spirally placed, but when the plant is mounted, they
seem to be alternate. They are commonly so far
separated as to be quite distinct, and are not more
than a quarter of an inch long. Color of the
plant when dry, a jet black.
Rhodomela floccosa,* Ag.
This species differs from the other in many
marked points. It is less • robust in habit ; the stem
and branches are flattened ; the whole frond is
divided and sub-divided in one plane ; the branches
are alternately set upon the stem, and once or twice
alternately divided ; the ultimate ramuli are some-
what incurved, but not clustered as in the other
species. In fertile plants, the last divisions at the
end of the branches are more or less gathered into
* Floccosa = Full of locks of wool.
\
RED ALG^^. 161
a mass, as in the whole genus, but in a far dif-
ferent way from the thick tufts of R. larix. In
truth, the plant very much resembles the fronds of
Polysiphonia Baileyi, for which it will be more often
mistaken than for any other species. You will get
a good idea of the general appearance of the plant,
by consulting Plate VIII. It differs from P. Baileyi
chiefly, in being somewhat more coarse and robust.
The main stem, in plants four inches high, is
not much larger than a bristle. It is found from
four to ten inches long. Color, a full black. It
grows at Santa Cruz, on the rocks, in the same
situation as its companion species, but is much less
common, and is collected from September to Novem-
ber. At Santa Barbara, Dr. Dimmick found it
common near the lighthouse, and Mrs. Bingham says
it is very common there all the year around, growing
with Polysiphonia parasitica. My specimens from
there are mingled with plants of that species.
Geuus— CHONDRIOPSIS* Ag.
This genus is represented by three common species
on our New England coast, and by one on the
coast of California. The Adantic species all belong
* Chondriopsis = Somewhat cartilaginovs.
162 SEA MOSSES.
to the warmer regions, and grow south of Cape
Cod, but grow there in great abundance. Though
not a very striking or beautiful genus, it is yet far
from being uninteresting. It is characterized by two
marks which make it extremely easy of recognition,
viz. : The uniform light or dull brown color when
fresh ; and the fact that the stems and branches
are pretty thickly covered with short club or spindle-
shaped ramuH. These ramuli, which' are from one-
eighth to one- half of an inch long, are very much
constricted at the base, often seeming to be attached
by the finest thread, or hair, to the plant. In three
of the species they taper to a fine point at the
extremity, and in the other, C. dasyphylla, they are
very blunt at the end, shaped not unlike a boy's
top. The plants should not be put in fresh water,
and should be dried under comparatively light
pressure.
Chondriopsis tenuissima, Ag.
This, as its name implies, is the slenderest of
the several species. It grows from four to six
inches high, with an undivided stem once or twice
as thick as a bristle, with long, spreading, mostly
alternate branches, sometimes simple, sometimes them-
selves branched in the same way, and furnished
throughout, more or less, abundantly with the charac-
RED ALGyE. 163
teristic ramuli, one-fourth to one-halt an inch long,
slender and attenuated to a sharp point, both at
the top and at the place of insertion on the branch.
In drying, the plant adheres well to paper. It
grows between tides, on Fucus and on rocks. It is
a summer annual, inhabiting Long Island Sound and
adjacent waters. I have collected it only at Wood's
Holl. Miss Booth reports it in great abundance in
Peconic Bay.
Chondriopsis striolata, Ag.
Frond from four to six inches high, twice as
thick as a bristle, with a short stem, soon dividing
into many long, simple, or ouce or twice compound
branches. The branches rise somewhat perpendic-
ularly, and make a compact tuft of the plant. The
ramuli are very plentiful, much constricted at the
base, somewhat rounded at the apex ; standing near
the next species, in this respect, as it does near
the last in its slender habit. The ramuli not unfre-
quently bear like secondary ramuli along their sides.
This is the characteristic point in the plant, though
it sometimes occurs in C. dasyphylla. This species
grows on rocks and other Algae, in pools, between
tides, and below. I have taken it, at low-tide, in
great abundance, on the rocks, east of the first
beach, at Newport, in July and August. It is plen-
164 SEA MOSSES.
tiful at Peconic Bay, and all through Long Island
Sound and southward.
Chondriopsis dasyphylla,* Ag.
This is a considerably more robust plant than
either of the others already described, growing from
six to twelve inches high in bushy tufts, the main
stem and branches being as thick as wrapping twine.
There seems to be, at least, two distinct types, or
varieties, of this species. The one has a pronounced
leading stem, with relatively shorter and more erect
branches, and the ramuh longer and less blunt, or
only rounded at the apex, like those of C. striolata.
The other just as manifestly divides up near the
base into several long, widely spreading, similar
branches, which are clothed throughout with an
abundance of short, secondary branches, The ramuli
of this variety present the typical form, much at-
tenuated at the base, "short, thick, very blunt, top-
shaped, or truncated at the apex. The former I
found very plentiful at Newport, in July and August,
growing in rock pools, near low-tide, and, as it
lies pressed on paper before me, presents a mixture
of green and purple color. The latter was among
the most abundant of the plants in the Httle harbor
•Dasyphylla= With bushy foliage.
RED ALG^E. 165
at Wood's Holl, the last days of October. In the
water it was oUve, but in drying it turned black.
Chondriopsis nidifica, Harv. {
This plant is a native of the Pacific coast. It
grows to the height of six or eight inches, as thick
as a sparrow's quill, cylindrical, inarticulate, sparingly
branched, in a manner between alternate and fork-
ing. Branches several inches long, quite simple, or
once or twice forked. The branches are either alto-
gether naked, or bear, at considerable intervals, little
tufts of short, incurved fruit-bearing ramuli, a quarter
of an inch or so, long. This is the distinguishing
feature of the plant. I have plants, but no notes of
this species, from my correspondents on the Pacific
coast. Another species, which Agardh reckons the
same as this, C. atropurpurea, is also found on that
coast. I have specimens, but no data for telling how
plentiful it is, or where it may be found.
GexwAS.— LAURENCJA* La?n.
But three species of this genus are reported on
the California coast, two only of which are sufficiently
common to come within the scope of this book.
* Laurencia. — Named for M. de la Laurencie.
166 SEA MOSSES,
Laurencia pinnatifida,* Lam.
Frond, flattened, narrow, in specimens ten inches
4ong, not less than one-fourth of an inch wide ; sub-
stance cartilaginous, thick ; color a hvid purple,
becoming brownish in drying, and often faded to
every shade, down to a dull white, and not seldom so
unevenly faded, that you will get every sort of color
in the different parts of the same plant. The frond
widens somewhat upwards, arid the flattened branches
are often as wide as the main stem. The stem is
usually naked at the base, owing, no doubt, as the
appearance indicates, to the breaking off of the lower
branches. An inch or two above the base the branches
appear upon the edges of the flattened stem, opposite
or alternate, at an angle half way from horizontal to.
perpendicular. The branches themselves are branched
in the same way with flattened branchlets along their
edges, and in rare cases these again. The plant is
never more than three times pinnatifid, rarely more than
twice. The ends of the ultimate pinnulae are always
(juite blunt.
The points indicated above will easily identify it.
Dr. Anderson finds it growing on Laminaria, not
uncommon, at all seasons, at Santa Cruz. At Santa
* Pinnatifida = Pinnately cleft.
RED ALG^. 1G7
Barbara, Dr. Dimmick and Mrs. Bingham find it grow-
ing near low-tide, and in deep water, upon the rocks,
from which it is thrown upon the beach. Mr. Cleve-
land gives substantially the same account of its habit
at San Diego, where he collects it from November to
March.
Laurencia virgata,* Ag.
This species has much the same geographical range
as the last, but is not so common, I judge, from the
comparative infrequency with which specimens find
their way to the Atlantic states. It differs also, in being
cylindrical in stem and branches, and by having the
branches set all around the stem, and not on two
sides only. The general habit of the branching,
except as to that, is much like the last. In size,
substance and color it greatly resembles Z. pinnatifida.
Order.— CHYLOCLADIE^.
Genus.— CBYLOCLADIA,^ Grev.
The only plant which later revisions have left in
this genus from our flora is the one which both Harvey
and Agardh call Lomentaria ovalis. But as it has
been lately known, and distributed, among American
* Virgata, refers to its long, rod-like, branches,
t Chylocladia = Juicy-branched.
IBS SEA MOSSES.
botanists, under the generic name given above, we
will adhere to that.
Chylocladia ovalis. Hook.
The frond is cylindrical, as thick as a goose quill,
six or more inches high, forking and sparingly
branched ; the stem and branches are densely clothed
near the summit, with ramuli, which resemble little sacks
or bags, from one-fourth to one-half an inch long, some-
times shaped like an Indian club, and sometimes like an
egg, hence the specific name. It grows, Mr. Cleveland
says, in deep water, and is collected as a rare plant
at Point Loma, Lajolla, between December and April.
The var. CouIte7i, is among the most common of plants
at Santa Barbara growing on rocks at mid-tide and
in deep water. It is not rare at Santa Cruz, where
Dr. Anderson finds it on the sides of soft rock cliffs,
near low-tide. It is not found on our Atlantic shores.
Order.— SPH^ROCOCCOIDE^.
Ger\\xs — GRINNELLIA* Barv.
Grinnellia Americana, Harv.
Somebody says, " Doubtless God could make a
better fruit than the strawberry, but doubtless He
• Grinnellia.— Named for Mr. Henry Grinnell, New York Oty*
RED ALG.^. 100
never did." So may we say of this Alga, ''Doubtless
the Hand that fashioned this graceful and brilliant
plant could make a finer. But it is tertain He never
has, to grow on our shores, at least."
Holding to stones and shells by a minute disk, not
so big as a pin-head, with the merest thread of a
stem, not a quarter of an inch long, it grows down
on the sea bottom, five or six fathoms deep. From
this slender thread of a stem, the wavy-edged, thin,
delicate red membrane of a frond, gradually expands
to the width of three or four inches, and rises to the
height of one to two feet or more, tapering to a
rounded point at the top. Along the middle of the
whole length of the frond, runs a fine but distinct line
of deeper color, and apparently thicker substance,
which not a little resembles the midrib in the leaf of
terrestrial plants. The edges are full, and rufiled,
or wavy, so that when put on paper they fold in
"plaits," at regular intervals, deepening the color at
these places, and adding another charm to the picture
which the mounted plant makes.
This beautiful plant grows along our shores from
Long Island Sound to Fortress Monroe, being most
abundant and most luxuriant about New York Ray.
It is in its perfection by the first of August, when it
loosens in great numbers, from its deeper fastnesses,
170 SEA MOSSES.
and floats to the surface, and is driven in shore.
Then like Macbeth's bloody hand, it almost seems the
"Multitudinous seas to incarnadine,
Making the green — one red."
There lies before me as I write, half a dozen splendid
fronds taken at that season, on the pebbly beach,
where the Hessians landed at the battle of Long Island,
just below Fort Hamilton, New York. They are from
one and one-half to two a.. J one-half feet long, and
three to four inches wide, perfect in outline, and of
a most beautiful rosy red, with just a shade of orange
here and there. They would make exquisite pictures
framed as pannels. A reduced copy of one of them
adorns this volume, in Plate XII. They are delicate
plants, and must be treated tenderly, and yet these
specimens were carried, rolled up in newspapers, from
New York to eastern Massachusetts, 250 miles, and
kept twenty-four hours out of water, before they were
mounted.
Genus.— DELESSERIA* Lam.
Delesseria sinuosa, Lam.
The Delesseria with a sinuous or indented outline
is a deep water plant, growing on the roots of Lam-
* Named for Delessert, a French botanist.
Delessaria
RED ALG^^. 171
inaria flexicaulis, and on shells and stones, at a depth
of ten to forty fathoms. It has been collected on
the coast of Maine at a depth of seventy-five, and
in the Arctic seas at a depth of eighty-five fathoms.
It is very plentiful in Massachusetts Bay, and along
the whole coast northward. It is sparingly found
soutn of Cape Cod. It is to be looked for among
the masses of sea weeds rolled up by the tides along
our northern — especially rocky and pebbly — beaches.
It is scarcely ever absent from such rejectamenta
of the sea, for it is a perennial. It is as easily dis-
tinguished there, as are the leaves of the oak or
maple, among the fallen foliage of the forest. In
some of its forms, it bears no inapt resemblance tc
the young leaf of the oak. In England, it is called
the oak-leaf Delesseria. In California, we have the
true oak-leaf form, called D. quercifotia, which is
not much unlike this species.
The plant grows from three to six inches or more
high. It is sometimes narrow, and sometimes quite
broad as is the one, which i? copied for this vol-
ume, and represented life size, in Plate X. It is ex-
tremely variable in outline, but the fact that it is
the only red Alga which has a regularly midribbtd and
veined frond, like the leaves of trees, removes all
difficulty in the way of its ready recognition, when-
172 SEA MOSSBS.
ever it is seen. Its color is a deep lake-red, when
fresh or young, but often flecked with green, or
white, or yellow, or faded to pink, when it has been
long exposed on the shore. There are very many
beautiful plants to be found among its various forms.
It does not readily, or very firmly adhere to paper
in drying.
I find, from an old work on my shelves, by
Gmelin, of St Petersburg, that it was described
more than a century ago, he having then already,
received specimens of it from Kamtschatka. It is
essentially an arctic plant. I have two copies from
Spitzbergen, where it is described, as being among the
most common of the red Algse.
Delesseria alata. Lam.
The winged Delesseria has the same general
habit as D. sinuosa, except that it is a very much
narrower, and more delicate plant. It grows in much
the same situation, and may be looked for in the
same places. It will almost always be found on our
shores in connection with Ptilota plumosa, var. ser-
rata, on whose frond it is very commonly parasitical.
It is commonly not more than three inches high,
though I have both English and American specimens,
twice that,
RED ALG^. 173
The cylindrical stem flattens into a midrib, directly
it enters the leafy part of the frond. There is but
a very narrow margin of leaf, or wings, bordering the
midrib ; in our plants, it is not over one-eighth to one-
fourth of an inch wide. The frond rapidly forks or
irregularly divides, in one plane, so that the frond
has a multitude of narrow, terminal ramifications,
along towards the end of which, the midrib, in most
of our American plants, seems to disappear.
The margins of the lobes are usually entire, and
they run out commonly to a narrow, but ahvays
rounded, termination, nearly one-tenth of an inch wide.
It will often be found associated with EutJiora
cristata, from which it will sometimes be found diffi-
cult to distinguish it, on account of similarity of size
and ramification. But the small ends of the Euthori
are never 7'ounded, but always square or notched,
in an angular fashion. A common pocket lens will
always reveal the distinction, if it cannot be made
out with the unaided eye. D. alata is a perennial.
It has not been found south of Cape Cod, but it
will seldom be wanting on our northern shores. It
is not uncommon on the CaHfornia coast. Its color
is a light red or delicate pink. It is indeed a very
beautiful plant when carefully mounted. Our Amer-
ican plants seem to adhere well to paper.
174 SEA MOSSES.
Genus— NITOPHYLLUM* Grev,
This splendid genus must be one of the glories
of the marine flora of California, a coast extremely-
rich in fine and beautiful species. With its many
species of large and brilliantly colored plants, thin
and silky in texture, graceful in outline, prolific in
numbers, surely this genus would be difficult to
match. What could be more charming than a wide,
deep, clear rock-pool, where the brown " Kelp " and
the green U/va, intermingled with the waving fronds
of these crimson plants, should spread themselves
out in calm and lazy life, the wonder and admira-
tion of every beholder ; or to look
** Far down in the green and glassy brine.
Where the floor is of sand, like the mountain drift,
And the pearl shells spangle the flinty snow;
Where from Coral rocks the sea plants lift
Their b.iughs where the tides and billows flow."
And see there, growing upon the stems of the giants
of Neptune's forest, these brilliant fronded Nitopyhlla^
• Red like a banner bathed in slaughter? "
NITOPHYLLUM SPECTABILE, EaTON.
This truly ad?mradle plant, says Prof. Eaton, is
" among the largest species of the genus, often two
♦ Nitophyllum = A shining leaf.
RBB ALGM. 175
feet long, and in the spread of the lobes two-thirds
as broad. The frond has usually a central body
with forked, tongue-like, marginal branches, an inch
wide and six or eight inches long. The lobes are
often crowded so as to overlap each other. No
veins are visible. Fruit dots are scattered over the
surface of the frond. The substance is rather firm,
but thin, and does not very well adhere to paper,
except in the younger portions. The color is dull
purplish-red, more rosy in the newer parts."
I have seen only small specimens of this noble
plant. Dr. Anderson reports it quite common at
Santa Cruz, and when he also reports, that three
other of the largest species of this splendid genus
are among the commonest plants in those waters, I
cannot help wishing that that El Dorado of the Al-
gologist were not so far away. He says all the
species of Nitophyllum grow between tides, on rocks,
and on the roots and stems of Laminaria, of course
in tide pools, all the year round. No doubt they
grow in deep water there also, as they do, according
to Dr. Dimmick, at Santa Barbara.
Nitophyllum latissimum,* Ag.
The frond springs from a narrow base, and spreads
* Latissimum = Wide«t>
176 SEA MOSSES.
out widely in lobes, like a hand with the fingers
extended, or remains entire, a foot long, rounded at
top, four or five inches wide, or displays one long,
tapering lobe and several smaller ones by the side
of it. It will thus be seen to be extremely variable
in form. But it has one mark which will infallibly
distinguish it, viz. : a network of branching, crossing
and interlacing veins, which covers over the entire
frond. The veins are very pronounced, and about
equally so throughout the frond. At least one other
species, of this genus, from these waters, has veins in
the frond, viz. : N. Ruprechteanum. But they
are mostly parallel, and rapidly fade out as they get
to the middle of the frond. Mrs. Bingham and Dr.
Dimmick find it not very common at Santa Barbara,
thrown up from deep water, in May and June. It
does not occur at San Diego. Dr. Anderson's report
of this and other Nitophylla, is given under the last
species, N. spectabile.
NiTOPHYLLUM, FrYEANUM, HaRV.
This plant was no doubt nam>ed for Mr. A. D.
Frye, of New York city, one of the earliest collectors
of Algae on the Pacific coast. It is neither a large
or a very common species. It attains a height of
five or six inches, and is spread to about the same
RED ALG^.. 177
width when full grown, and much divided. From
a minute point of attachment it widens rapidly upward
in a wedged-shaped manner, quite like a palmate, or
typical form, of "Dulse," and in general, it may be
said to have the habit of the smaller species of that
genus, found in the same neighborhood, viz. : Rhody-
7nenia corallina. The full grown frond is divided
almost to the base into three or four lobes, and these
again at top, having widened much, are themselves
divided half way down, the secondary lobes being
nicely rounded and scalloped at top. It is full red,
thickish and nerveless. It is not very uncommon in
northern California, but is rare in Santa Barbara, and
has not yet been found at San Diego. In the former
place it is thrown up from deep water in May, and
probably at other times.
NiTOPHYLLUM AnDERSONII, AG.
Though by no means the largest, this is one of the
most interesting and certainly the best marked species
of the group. It has a narrow frond throughout, not
over one-third of an inch wide, often less than that.
It throws out branches profusely along each edge,
or quite loses itself in branchings and forkings, so as
to make often, a very rambling and uncertain outline.
But the figure, in Plate XL, will give a much better
178 SEA MOSSES.
idea of the plant than can be conveyed by any words.
It has one unmistakable mark which will distinguish
it from every other member of the family, viz. : the
fact that all the parts and lobes are armed along
their edges with sharp, forward-pointing teeth. In
all the older parts, a midrib is very distinctly seen,
which loses itself at last near the middle, or toward
the younger parts of the frond. My largest specimens
are eight inches in lateral spread, and something less
in height ; color, a dull or brownish red. It is common
along the whole coast, and at Santa Barbara, it is
reported growing in deep water near the wharf, and
on large rocks at low-tide, and at San Diego, in deep
water, from November to April.
NiTOPHYLLUM RUPRECHTEANUM, AG.
This is a fine, large and well marked species.
Starting from a narrow stem, it soon expands into a
repeatedly forking, widely spreading frond from one
to two feet' long. The strap-like lobes of the frond
are from half an inch to one inch wide, of various
lengths, of nearly parallel edges, rounded and often
cleft at the top. The edges of all the older parts of
the frond, and of any old breaks in it, are bordered
with a fringe of minute leaflets, not more than one-
eighth of an inch long. Sometimes these extend over
LoMKNTARiA Baileyana, Haiv.
Xi lOi'inLr.iM .\Nni;iis()\n. .1.
PLATE X.:
RED ALG^. 179
portions of the surface of the frond. This is an un-
mistakable mark of the species. The thickened stem
divides and forms midribs or veins in the lower
divisions of the frond. These, however, soon dis-
appear upward. The color is a dark red with a shade
of purple. Substance, somewhat rigid. It does not
adhere well to paper. It is among the commonest
of plants along the whole coast, and must be one of
the finest features of a fine flora.
NiTOPHYLLUM FLABELLIGERUM,* AG.
This is another large plant growing a foot or more
high, and spreading as wide. In general habit it very
much resembles the last species, but differs in lacking the
fringe of minute leaflets upon the edge of the lobes.
It is also more widely divided in the palmate frond,
the lobes are more numerous, more wedge-shaped,
shorter and narrower. From a flattened stem, one
to four inches long, the frond spreads, by repeated
forkings and dividings, into many segments with
rounded tops. Large, dark, fruit dots are scattered
over the surface of the fertile fronds. It appears to
to be a native of the northern shores, as I have not
received it from any locality south of Santa Cruz.
• FlabcUigerum = Fan-shaped.
180 SEA MOSSES.
NiTOPHYLLUM VIOLACEUM, AG.
This species is distinguished by its very narrow
frond, which fofks ahiiost from the bottom, into long,
slender segments, and by its marked purple or violet
color. It is quite a variable plant, yet one or the
other of these marks will usually determine it. It
grows to the height of six or eight inches, and its
lobes are often not over a quarter of an inch wide,
and are apt to throw out at irregular intervals along
the margin, minute leaflets with a dark spot in them ;
this is the fruit. It is plentiful along the entire coast,
and grows in deep water on the larger Algae.
Genus.— CALLIBLEPHARIS,'' Kutz.
Calliblepharis ciliata, Kutz.
The ciliated species of this genus is by no
means as common in our waters, as it is reported
to be on the other side of the Atlantic, but it will
well repay looking for where it may be expected.
It is an annual, growing in deep water, and ripen-
ing its fruit and frond in early winter. It is found
at Cape Ann, and down the coast of New Eng-
* Calliblepharis = Beautiful eyelashes.
RED ALG^, 181
land and the Provinces, as far as Halifax. Mrs.
Davis gets it on the beach at Gloucester, where it
is thrown up, from September to December. Prof.
Eaton found it at Eastport, Me. It may be ex-
pected at all intermediate points.
It grows from a mass of short, creeping roots,
at first, a short, cylindrical stem, which gradually
expands into a flat, thickish, cartilaginous frond,
from one-half to one inch wide, and from two to
six inches high, tapers again at the top into a sim-
ple acute apex, or, forking, ends in two such apices.
Along the edges of this frond, at irregular intervals,
there come forth, at first, sharp, minute, spine-like
processes, usually curved. These at length grow
into miniature fronds of the same general form as
the parent frond. These again put out the spinous
cilia ("eyelashes," so called) which, in turn, be-
come still more minute fronds, of the original pat-
tern, having ciliated edges. Here, generally, the
ramification stops. The plant has a clear, strongly
marked red color, with a decided tendency to turn
darker in drying. It adheres well to paper.
182 SEA MOSSES.
Genus.— G J? AC/LA J^/A* Grev.
Gracilaria multipartita, Ag.
The many-fimes-divided Gracilaria is the only
representative of this genus, which grows in our
northern waters, and it is found on both the east
and west coast, being quite common in Southern
California. The narrow form, angustissima, is very
plentiful in Long Island Sound and adjacent waters.
I have collected this variety in considerable quanti-
ties in Providence river, in the month of August,
where Prof. Bailey and Mr. Olney found it in
abundance, many years ago. It has been reported
north of Cape Cod, by but one collector, Mr.
Collins, who finds it quite plentiful in the warm
waters and on the muddy bottoms of Mystic river
marshes, near Boston, from May to November.
The plant is an extremely variable one. It grows
to a height of from six to twelve inches. It starts
with a short, cyhndrical stem. This immediately be-
gins to flatten, and directly expands into a narrowish
flat frond, which always widens upward, till it is a
third or half an inch broad. Then it divides into
two to four segments, which are, in the same way,
* Gracilaria = Slender, giaceful.
r ^
p"
(tuinmii.lia Amekicaxa, Ifa.
RED ALG^. 183
slender at first, but gradually widen as they grow
upward. Another division, soon occurs in each of
these, and the parts again expand, and so on. This
method of growth, together with the partings or
branchings which occur along the edges of the
frond, and which likewise have the same habit of
upward widening, gives the whole frond a decidedly
fan-shaped aspect.
In July or August, the seed-vessels appear along
the edges of the branches, like warts, as big as
pigeon shot. The substance of the frond is some-
what tender and brittle, but when dry, it is tough
and leathery. The color is a dull purplish-red, but
much darker when dry and mounted on paper, to
which it adheres rather imperfectly.
Order.— CORALLINES. \/
Genus.— CORALLINA* Lam,
There are several genera of this order growing on
our shores, besides the one named above. They are
all characterized by the calcarious, or stony incrubta
tion of the frond. Some of them are mere pink
or brown patches, upon the fronds of other Algae, or
* Corallina ^ A little coral.
184 SEA MOSSES.
upon the rocks, stones and shells ; others grow up
in the form of plants. None of these, with the ex-
ception, possibly, of the Co7'allina, and the Amphi-
roa, will be of sufficient interest to any other than
the scientific botanist, to make them desirable to
collect. But that you may know, that these things
which you will find so plentiful all along the shore,
and which much more resemble, by reason of their
stony structure, the corals than any plant, are real
plants and not corals, I have selected one species
for description. It should be added, perhaps, that
the true plant structure, and the reproductive organs,
really exist as in other red Algae, but are concealed
beneath the hard crust which is secreted upon the
outside.
V y CORALLINA OFFICINALIS, L.
The medicinal species of this genus is the only one
on our eastern shore. It is also a native of Cali-
fornia. It grows in great abundance in tide pools,
and upon the rocks, about low-water mark, all along
our shores from New York northward. It is from
one and a half to three inches high, extremely vari-
able in size and aspect, in some cases loosely and in
others densely tufted ; in color, from a reddish pur-
ple to a gray green, and if exposed to the weather,
for a little time, upon the beach, bleach out quite
RED ALGyB. 185
white. The frond is composed of cylindrical fila-
ments, a trifle flattened, the main stem branching
from its edges, as do also the principal branches.
The whole plant is built up of small stony, some-
what wedge-shaped joints, a trifle the widest at the
top, all the branches and branchlets spring from
the top of the joints directly below. It generally
refuses to adhere, but may be fastened down with
straps of gummed paper.
Order — GELIDIE^.
Genus.— GELIDIUM* Lam.
One species of this is a native of both shores,
and the others of the Pacific alone. They are nar-
row, compressed, rarely quite cyhndrical plants, of a
firm, tenacious substance, and, when dry, quite rigid
and horny. They are pinnately branched, and the
branching is mostly in one plane.
Gelidium corneum, Lam.
This is a most variable plant. A typical form,
such as we figure, in Plate XIII, will not very fre-
quently be found. But every plant will be but a
variation on that theme. Plants of this species on
* Gelidium = Ice-like or jelly-like.
186 SEA MOSSES.
the eastern coast are small, not more than an inch,
or an inch and a half high. Those growing in
California are three or four inches high, the lower
branches long and naked below, gradually shortening
toward the top of the plant. They are two or
three times pinnated, that is, the branches bear
branches, and these branchlets, arranged on the same
pinnate plan throughout; the ultimate ramuli are
usually club-shaped, and swollen with the spore
masses, which they contain. Color, a purpUsh red,
but by exposure on the beach, it fades through all
shades to dirty white. It grows in tide pools on
rocks and other Algae, near low-water mark. It is
extremely common on the Pacific coast at all sea-
sons. A section of the fruit-bearing branchlet makes
a very interesting microscopical object, with its club-
shaped spores, growing from a central partition,
which divides the inner cavity of the conceptacle
in^o two equal chambers.
Gelidium cartilagineum, Grev.
The fronds often attain a height of twelve inches,
are flattened, two-edged, one-tenth of an inch in
diameter, flatter upwards, three or four times pin-
nated. The root is a mass of much-branched, rigid
fibres. Stem and long primary branches naked be-
Gelidium corneum, Lam.
PLATE XIII.
RED ALG^E. 187
low, thickly, pinnately branched above. All the
lesser pinnules issue at very obtuse angles with
distinctly rounded axils. Color when growing is a
very dark purplish-red. Its size, the long primary
branches, and the rounded axils of its ultimate
branchlets, distinguish it from the last. It is very
common at all seasons, growing between tides, on
rocks and weeds. Mrs. Bingham finds it on the
stems of Phyllospoi'a Menziesii at Santa Barbara.
At San Diego it grows in deep water and in deep
tide pools. It does not adhere to paper in drying.
Gelidium coulteri, Harv.
This is much the smallest and most delicate
species of the three. It grows in considerable tufts
from a mass of matted root-fibres, sometimes fifty
plants together. It is very slender and narrow, not
more than the twentieth of an inch wide, yet all
parts are clearly flattened, and the opposite pinnate
branching, goes on very regularly from the edges.
The fronds are commonly two or three inches high ;
the primary branches one to two inches long; the
secondary are usually the club-shaped ramuli which
contain the fruit, and are closely set and opposite.
Color, a very dark purple. It adheres to paper fairly
well. Beginning as a somewhat rare plant in San
188 SEA MOSSES.
Diego, it becomes more and more common toward
the north. At Santa Cruz it is very plentiful. Its
habitat is upon rocks and other Algae between tides.
Order. — HYPNE^.
Gex^us.— BYFNEA* Lam.
Hypnea musciformis, Lam.
The moss-like Hypnea is in many places south
of Cape Cod, a very common plant. I collected
it at Wood's Holl, but not very plentifully. Miss
Booth speaks of it as growing " by the acre," in
Peconic Bay. In California, as on the Atlantic
coast, it grows more common as you go southward.
It is not found north of Cape Cod.
The frond is filiform, growing from a mat of
root fibres, on stones and shells, in deep water.
It grows in spreading bushy tufts to a height of
from three to seven inches. The main stem is as
thick as a sparrow's quill at base, thence tapering to
the size of a bristle at top. It is irregularly but
plentifully branched, especially in the lower part of
the frond, the branches spreading out widely in every
* Hypnea, named from Hypnuma; genus of Mosses,
i
RED ALG^^. 189
direction, the longest near the bottom. These
branches are often branched in the same manner,
and sometimes the branchlets also. All the parts are
beset, sometimes thickly, sometimes sparingly, with
short, horizontal spines one-tenth to one-third of an
inch long.
The distinguishing mark of the plant is this : The
almost or quite naked extremity of the principal
branches is turned back at the ends so as to form
a hook, often not unlike a fish-hook in appearance.
This must not be mistaken for the twining tendrils
borne on the end branches of one variety of Cysto-
c Ionium purpurascens. The color is a dark, dull
red, with a purplish tinge, which rapidly fades to
dirty green and white, when exposed to sunshine or
the action of fresh water. It adheres to paper, but
not very strongly.
Order.— RHODYMENIE^.
Ger\us.— RBODYMENIA* Grev.
Rhodymenia palmata, Grev.
The palmate or hand-shaped Rhodymenia is so
common and so universally known under the common
* Rhodymenia = A red membrane.
190 SEA MOSSES.
name of " Dulse " that it seems hardly necessary to
give a particular description of it. As its name says,
it is a red membrane. From a small, hard disk, a
veiy short, round stem arises for one-fourth of an
inch or so, and then spreads out into a broad, thin,
fan-shaped membrane, three to twelve inches or more
high, destitute alike of midrib and veins. But it is
cleft from top to bottom, or nearly, into many wedge-
shaped segments. The main segments are cleft down
half way or so, giving them also, and the whole plant,
somewhat the appearance of a hand with the fingers
spread out. The margins of the frond are usually
quite entire, but the ends of the " fingers," are cut
in a little way, to show where other divisions would
come.
The plant, however, is variable, sometimes growing
a foot or more high, a narrow leathery strap, fringed
along the sides with leaflets, and surmounted with
several palmately divided segments. It is a perennial,
and the old fronds are generally much thicker than
the young ones. I have some very thin, quite trans-
lucent specimens from Sweden. But my British and
Spitsbergen plants are thicker, like our American
forms.
It is of a dark red or wine color. It grows on
rocks, and on the Fucus, and on stems of Laminana^
RED ALGuE. 191
from low-water mark to several fathoms down. It
adheres very imperfectly to paper when dried, unless
allowed to stand for a considerable time before mount-
ing, in fresh water. Both cooked and in a raw state,
it is a common article of food among the peasantry
of the British Isles. ' In Norway and Sweden, it is
much used as the food of sheep and goats. Mrs.
Bingham reports it at Santa Barbara, common.
Rhodymenia corallina. Grey.
Starting in a cylindrical stem which sometimes is
as long as one-third of the whole plant, it soon
expands into a wide, fan-shaped, many times forking,
rose red frond. The plant is from four to eight inches
high. The lobes, which are generally of a uniform
width in the same plant, vary from one-third to three-
fourths of an inch, in different plants. The margins
of all parts are very entire and smooth, and the ends
nicely rounded. The substance is thin but firm.
It grows in rocky tide pools and in deep water, along
ihe whole coast of California, very common both north
and south. It is not found on the Atlantic coast.
192 SEA MOSSES.
Q^Qx\\x%.— EUTHORA, Ag.
EUTHORA CRISTATA, Ag.
The crested Euthora is among our most interest-
ing and beautiful northern plants. Plate XIV. gives
a good reproduction of a typical frond of this species.
In general outline, when spread on paper, it is not
greatly unlike some forms of Delesseria alata, from
which it differs, however, by having no veins or
midrib, and by having its end ramifications notched.
In D. alata they terminate in rounded points.
The tiat fan-shaped frond grows from one to
three inches high, and divides from the base in a
manner between forking and alternate branching.
The main branches also subdivide in the same way.
Sometimes they widen upwards at first, and then
fringe out into narrow branches. Sometimes they
are of the same width throughout, one eighth of an
inch or more, and rapidly divide toward the ends into
.minute branches, each of which, under the glass, will
seem to be notched in at the end. It is a full bright
red color.
It is found in great abundance along our whole
coast north of Cape Cod. It has also been dredged
off Block Island. It grows with Ptilota pliimosa.
and the two Delessei-ice^ on stones, shells, and other
EUTHORA CRISTATA, Ao;
PLATE XIV.
RET) ALGAZ, 198
Algae in deep water. It is to be looked for among
the debris left upon the strand by the waves. Professor
Eaton found it near Eastport, Me. in tide pools, an
unusual habitat, I must think. It may be collected
throughout the season. It adheres well to paper, and,
when carefully laid out makes a beautiful specimen.
Gewus.— FLOCAMIUM* Lyngb,
Plocamium coccineum, Lyngb.
A plant of the scarlet Plocamiiwi is well repre-
sented in Plate XV. It is one of the most brilliant,
beautiful and common of the California Algae. Few
collections of " Sea Mosses " will come from the
Pacific coast, which will not contain more or less of
them. It grows between tides in pools, and below.
Its color is a dark lake red, often faded to a lighter
hue. The substance is cartilaginous. The frond is
narrow, one-tenth to one-eighth of an inch wide, from
three to eight inches high, flattened and branched
from the edges, by stout, flattened, alternate branches,
some long and some short.
Plants of this species may be easily and infallibly
* Plocamium = Braided hair.
«3
194 SEA MOSSES.
distinguished by the peculiar arrangement of its extreme
ramifications. The ultimate ramuli are set on the
inner edges of the terminal branchlets, exactly like
the teeth of a comb, three or four little awl-shaped
teeth in a row upon each branchlet, and the branch-
lets themselves, set in the same way, upon the edges
of the penaltinate branches.
It adheres very well to paper when mounted fresh
from the sea, under considerable pressure. It is so
common at all seasons, along the whole western coast,
that particular localities need not be named.
It is not a little sin^lar, that this species, which
is so common on the western shores of both Europe
and America, should not be found at all on the
eastern coast of America, lying directly between.
Gex\Kxs.— STENOGRAMMA, Barv,
Stenogramma interrupta,* Mont.
The same remark may be made of this as of the
last species ; the singularity of its occurrence on the
western shores of both continents, and its absence from
•the intervening east coast of America.
* Steno.^ramma interrupta =: An interrupted mark or line.
Pl.OCAMUTM COcCINErM. Lvfio/).
PLATE XV.
RED ALrG^. 195
It grows in deep water, on stones and weeds, from
a discoid root, with a short stem, which immediately
flattens into a thin, wedge-shaped, repeatedly forked
membrane, two to eight inches high, widely spreading,
the lobes from one-fourth to one-half an inch wide,
with parallel sides and rounded apices. The color
varies from a pink to a full red.
The fertile fronds may be known by the interrupted
or broken line of very dark red fruit vessels, which
runs up the middle of the frond and its segments,
quite like a midrib. Tiie barren plants have an
appearance much like that of Rhodymenia coralHna,
but may usually be distinguished from that species,
by their much brighter red color. Fronds bearing
asexual fruit are dotted over with irregularly shaped,
dark red spots. It is reported on the whole coast
of Calfornia, but not very common anywhere.
Ger\u^.^PIKEA, Harv.
Ptkea californica, Harv.
This is a common, coarse, cartilaginous plant,
growing between tides at all seasons along the whole
California coast. It has a thickish, piarrow, flattened
frond, one-eighth of an inch wide, three or four
Id6 SMA MOSSES.
inches high, with a spread of its multitude of branches
all in one plane, in a general fan-shaped outline,
quite as wide as it is high. The flattened branches
spread out widely from the two edges of the main
stem, and divide and sub-divide profusely and irreg-
ularly. The only distinguishing point in its outward
appearance is the fact that all the lesser branches
are bordered along both edges by a considerable
number of short, inward-curved, forward-pointing,
spine-like ramuH, of various lengths, from one-tenth
to one-fourth of an inch, short and long mixed in-
discriminately. There seems also to be an utter lack
of system in the branching of the plant. Its color
is a dark red, becoming much darker in drying. It
adheres imperfectly to paper.
Genus.— FARLOWIA, Ag,
Farlowia compressa, Ag.
This genus, which Prof. Agardh has named in
honor of our countryman. Dr. Farlow, of Harvard
College, who is doing so much fine work in per-
fecting, and disseminating a knowledge of Amer-
ican Algae, comprises two species, but one of which
I shall undertake to give an account of.
RED ALG^. 197
This species is distributed along the whole Cali-
fornia coast, is well marked, and, from its outward
resemblance to Fikea, as well as by its own pecu-
liarities, it will not be difficult to determine.
It has a coarse, tough, leathery frond, narrow,
flattened, profusely and irregularly branched from its
edges, in a way quite impossible to describe, and
yet easy enough to recognize when once seen. It
grows to a height of from eight to twelve inches,
aud has a lateral spread of branches quite equal to
that.
Most of the fronds have a well-developed leading
stem, though in some it is lost midway in the mul-
titude of branches which spread out each side.
Neither stem nor long branches are ever over one-
eighth of an inch wide, thickened in the middle,
roughened, often toothed along the edges.
The branches and branchlets are all tapered
towards the base, and mostly pointed at the top.
The ultimate branchlets and ramuli, which are from
one-half inch to one inch long, show a decided
tendency to bend inward towards one edge like a
sabre.
The color is a very dark red, turnmg almost
black in drying. It does not very closely adhere to
paper.
198 SEA MOSSES.
The other species, F. crassa, I have no speci-
mens or notes of, and, so can give no account of
it. It is a northern plant, and may be found from
Santa Cruz northward through Oregon.
Okq^u^.— CHAMPIA* Ag,
Champia parvula, Harv.
The little Champia is an extremely variable, but
on our southern shores, a very common plant. It
need not be looked for north of Cape Cod. I
have found it in abundance at Southold, L. I., New-
port, near the beaches, Martha's Vineyard, Onset
Bay, and at other points. The fronds are filiform.
Main stem and branches about the size of a pack-
thread. The living plant, in the water, is apt to
assume a globose appearance, on account of its prolific
and irregular branching. It grows to the height of
from two to six inches. It is softly cartilaginous, and
adheres well to paper. Its distinguishing mark, in
the typical form, is, that both in the water and on
paper, it is regularly and somewhat deeply constricted.
The constrictions vary in length from once to once
and a half times the diameter of the frond. Thev
* Champia = A personal name.
RED ALG^. 199
are longest in old parts of the frond, and gradually
shorten towards the ends of the branches, till at last
they appear under the lens, like a string of very small
beads.
In other than the normal forms, these constrictions
are not apparent except to a microscopical examination.
The beginner is advised to put doubtful cases aside,
and wait till a greater familiarity with the species
enables him to be sure of them. I have found the
typical forms to be mostly of a brownish purple color,
darker on paper, while many of the others are of a
decidedly pale green, touched with whitish yellow in
spots, with perhaps here and there brown branches
intermingled. It is a deep water plant, and may be
got through the warm season.
Ger\us.— LOMENTARIA, Lyngb.
This genus is represented by two not very common
species on our eastern coast, but one of which, how-
ever, is of sufficient importance to come within the
scope of this book.
LOMENTARIA BaILEYANA, HaRV.
This is a very beautiful little plant, growing in
globose tufts, two or three inches high. It is of n
200 SEA MOSSES.
delicate red or pink color, and takes on a variety of
interesting forms, one of the most beautiful of which
is represented in Plate XL, Figure 2. The normal
form is that of a frond as thick as a bristle, forking
and branching as it rises, the branches being much
constricted at their insertion, and bending in grace-
ful curves towards their extiemity. Sometimes the
main branches bend over in the long sweep of a
semi-circle, as in the plate, and the branchlets spring-
ing from the convex side of the arched branch, in
their turn bend in the same way, they again being
beset externally with arched ramuH.
The normal variety differs from this only in having
the parts less bent. But the tapering of both branches
and ramuli, to base and apex, is characteristic of
every variety. It grows in deep water, four or five
fathoms down. It is common south of Cape Cod,
and is not found to the northward of that. I found
nearly all forms of it at Wood's Holl, in August, and
Miss Booth collects it at Peconic Bay, in that month.
The divaricate form makes an extremely beautiful
and graceful picture. It adheres well to paper in
drying
RED ALGAl. 201
Q,Qx\\i^.— RHABDONIA* Harv.
RhABDONIA TENERA,t AG.
This genus is represented by one species on each
of our American coasts. The one named first is the
Atlantic plant. It is found only south of Cape Cod,
where it is a very common but somewhat variable
plant. In general appearance it is not greatly unlike
Gracilaria multipartita, differing mainly in color,
and in having a cylindrical and not a flattened frond.
The stem and branches are somewhat stouter than
a wrapping twine.
The plant grows from six to twelve inches high,
is very irregularly branched, the branches longest near
the bottom of the frond, shorter toward the top, but
always attenuated at base and apex. Sometimes the
main stem runs through the whole plant, sometimes
it is so divided into large branches as to be quite lost
sight of. The branches themselves also divide, in a
manner between branching and forking, and even the
somewhat profuse secondary branches not infrequently
have scattered ramuli upon them.
The frond manifests a marked tendency to flatten-
* Rhabdonia = Rod-like,
t Tenera = Tender.
202 SEA MOSSES.
ing, at the point where several branches put out
near together. The fruit is produced on the long
branchlets in hemispherical, wart-like protuberances,
as large as grape seeds.
The normal color is a dark red, which fades on
exposure to the air, and so the plant may come to
have almost any tint, according as it has been for a
longer or shorter time tossed about by the weaves,
exposed on the shore, or treated to fresh water in
mounting. It grows upon rocks and stones, several
feet below low-water mark. It is so common every-
where south of Cape Cod, that special localities need
not be named. I have found it everywhere in those
waters.
Rhabdonia Coulteri, Harv.
This species seems to be as common on the California
coast as /^. tenera is on the Atlantic shores. It differs
from that if I may judge by a somewha^ limited suite
of specimens, and from Harvey's description and
figure, by having a more pronounced leading stem,
not branched near the base, and by having all the
branches much shorter in proportion to the length
of the plant, and crowded together towards the top
of the frond.
It grows at low- tide, and below, on rocks, and is
found thrown up upon the beach, somewhat rarely,
RED ALG^. 203
from January to March, at San Diego, and all the year
around, in great abundance, at Santa Cruz and Santa
Barbara.
Qrdex.—SPONGIOCARFE^.
Genus.— FOLYIDES* Ag.
POLYIDES ROTUNDUS, AG.
This is the only species in the genus, and the
only genus in the order. Agardh names it P. lum-
bricalis, but rotundus appears to be the older name.
The frond is cylindrical, and rises from a minute
disk, at first very slender, then thickens, and at the
height of an inch, or an inch and a half, is as large
as a knitting-needle, where it widely divides or forks.
In the course of half an inch more, each of
the branches forks in the same way; a little further
on, all these fork, and again these branchlets, till
there are six or eight regular dividings, each succes-
sive one being less wide and spreading than the one
immediately before it. This gives the plant a fan-
shaped outline. The branches all keep their cylin-
drical form, so that the plant looks stiff and bare,
notwithstanding its much branching.
• Polyides = Many-formed.
204 SEA MOSSES.
In color, it is very dark red when fresh, and
quite black when dry. It is a perennial, and so may
be looked for at all seasons. It grows in deep
water. I have taken it at Marblehead and Newport.
Mr. Collins reports it in various places about Massa-
chusetts Bay, in the summer and fall, in tide pools.
Mrs. Davis gets it at Annisquam in a mill pond.
Mrs. Bray finds it washed ashore at Coffin's Beach,
Gloucester. All report it common.- Miss Booth finds
it scarce at Orient, It does not adhere to paper,
and is far from being, to the generality, an inter-
esting plant.
Order.— B A TRA CHE OSPERME^,
denus—NEMALWN* Ag,
Nemalion multifidum, Ag.
The many-times-divided Nemalion is a summer
annual, growing attached to the surface of rocks, on
the sea bottom, which are uncovered at low tide.
It much affects the smooth, rounded surface of the
hard, granitic, sea-worn boulders, which lie low down,
between tides, all along our New England coast.
Where nothing else seems able to make a foot-hold,
* Nenj^Hoo = Crop of strings.
RED ALG^, 205
or keep its place against the beating of the fierce
waves, we often find numbers of these worm-like
fironds fastened and flourishing.
At Marble head, in early June, I have seen these
boulders lying clean, smooth, and hard, warming in
the sun, when the tide was out, with no trace of
vegetation on them. In early July, I have found
the young fronds of the Nemalion just sprouting up,
half an inch high or so. By the middle or last of
August, they would be a foot long, full grown, and
in perfect fruit. But on visiting the place in Octo-
ber, I have found no trace of them left.
They have ripened, produced the living crop of
spores, discharged them into the sea, and so having
accomplished their life-function, have vanished again
fi-om among living forms.
Where and how the spores pass the intervening
months, from October to June, in the midst of the
furious waves, and then come back to their native
habitat, on the smooth, rounded faces of these bare
boulders, there to germinate and grow, and accom-
plish the circle of their life-history, "is something no
fellow can find out ;" and it always seemed to me
a very wonderful and mysterious thing.
Nemalion mulHfidiim has a cord-like frond as
thick as a match, six to twelve inches long, when
206 SEA MOSSES.
full grown, very elastic and tough. It divides and
sub-divides by regular forkings, the axils being wide
and rounded. Sometimes a frond, or a branch, will
divide into three or four lobes at the same point,
spreading out like the fingers of the hand when
widely opened. Again, the forkings will follow each
other, in rapid succession, and again, only at long
intervals. Usually several, and often quite a bundle
of fronds, spring from the same discoid hold-fast
upon the rock. The color is dark brown or purple.
It shrinks much in drying, and adheres closely to
paper. When in fruit, it makes interesting micro-
scopical specimens. It is common from Long Island
Sound northward. I have found it as plentiful at
Newport, as at Marblehead.
Qenws—SCINAIA, Bivon,
SCINAIA FURCELLATA, BlVON.
The forked Scinaia is not a very common plant,
but is worth looking for wherever it is likely to be
found, viz. : in our warmer seas, south of Cape Cod,
especially at Newport, Gay Head, and Katama,
Mass., and in California, where it is said to be quite
common. I took several fine plants in Newport in
RED ALG^. 207
July. It is a summer amiual, of a fine lake-red
color, not over four, and usually not over two inches
high.
The frond is cylindrical, one-eighth of an inch in
diameter, tapering much at the base, sometimes con-
stricted at intervals, and repeatedly and regularly
forking as it rises. The frond divides and subdivides
six or eight times, and finally ends in little forks,
hence its name. All the branches attain the same
length, so that the plant is "level-topped," and its
outline, when carefully laid out on paper, is almost a
perfect semi-circle. It adheres well, and must not
be subjected to too much pressure at first. The
ultimate branchlets are usually thickened a Uttle. It
makes an interesting and sometimes a beautifiil specimen.
It grows in deep water.
Order.— GIGARTINEyE,
Qenus.— PBYLLOFBORA* Grev.
The characteristic of the genus is a hard, cylindrical
stem, considerably branched, from one to three inches
long, and bearing upon the end of the branches a
small, wedge-shaped, red leaflet.
• Pbyllophora = Leaf-bearing.
208 SEA MOSSES.
Phyllophora membranifolia,* Ag.
This is the more common species of the two which
are natives of our waters. It especially loves the
warmer seas, though it is reported as not uncommon
on our northern shores. Mrs. Davis collects it at
Magnolia, and Mr. Collins at Revere. I found it at
Newport and Wood's Holl, in great abundance, especially
at the last named place. It grows in deep water on
pebbles and rocks. From an expanded disk upon
the stone, fifteen or twenty cylindrical fronds some-
times arise in a bunch. At the height of half an inch
they begin an irregular branching.
The branches are short and stiffs and stumpy. Some
of them soon expand into various sized wedge-shaped
leaflets, from one-fourth to three-fourths of an inch
long ; others appear merely flattened and then truncated ;
others bear the minute lobes of young sprouting leaf-
lets. The typical leaflets are once or twice lobed or
forked. The plants grow from one and one-half to
six inches high, of a clear red color, and the old ones
are often incrusted with parasites, patches of polyzcm
or of calcarious Algae. It is a perennial.
Phyllophora Brodi^i, Ag.
This is said to be very common in deep water at
* Mepibranifolia = A membraneous leaf.
RED ALG^S.
Halifax, and in northern regions generally. It differs
from the last in having a much less branched stem,
and a much broader and larger leaflet. Yet this is
very variable both in size and form. But the frond
is much more simple, and of a somewhat more robust
habit than P. membranifolia. The leaflet is deeply
lobed, but all the segments keep their wedge-shaped
outline, and are themselves indented at the top. The
color is a clear, strong red. It grows in deep water,
and is a perennial. I have never collected it. Mr.
Collins finds it occasionally at Nahant, in October, and
Mrs. Davis finds it in the fall, on the open beaches,
about Gloucester, after a storm. It has been found
as a rarity, by Miss Booth, washed ashore at Orient.
It has the same geographical range as the other species.
Neither of these plants adhere to paper, nor are they
especially interesting to the general collector.
(^Qx\\i%.— GYMNOGONGRUS* Mart
This genus is represented by one species on the
Atlantic and three on the Pacific coast, in our flora.
Gymnogongrus Norvegicus, Ag.
The Norway species is reported at many places
Gymnogongrus = Naked warts, seed v«
210 SEA MOSSES.
on our coast, Peaks Island, Me., Beverly and Nahant
Mass, and New York, But I do not think it can be
a very common plant, for I have never happened to
tind it growing, and none of my correspondents have
seemed to be more fortunate than myself. It grows
in deep water, about two inches high, from a little
disk, by a stem at first cylindrical, twice as thick as
a bristle. In half an inch it forks, sending out a
main branch each way. In half an inch more it
flattens to one-eighth of an inch wide, and forks again
with a wide, rounded axil. Directly these again fork
in the same way, till five or six divisions have been
made, and the ultimate lobes will be one-fourth to
one-half an inch long, standing wide apart, and
rounded at the end. It has a darkish red color on
paper.
Gymnogongrus leptophyllus,* Ag.
This plant somewhat resembles the last. Like that,
the frond is flat and narrow, but the stalk is shorter
and not so cylindrical. Starting from a discoid
hold-fast, a small, narrow, flat stem arises, which
either branches at once, or forks at the height of
half an inch, into two widely spreading parts. These
divide and sub-divide, in the same way, two or three
• Leptophyllus = Thin-leaved.
RED ALGjE. ^ 211
times. In a plant two inches high, none of the
parts are over one-tenth of an inch wide, and
usually not more than one-sixteenth. The fertile
fronds have little hemispherical fruit-vessels scattered
over them.
The substance of the frond is thin, but carti-
laginous and tough ; the color, a darkish or brownish
red. It adheres imperfectly to paper. It grows along
the coast northward from Santa Barbara, not very
common, on rocks, between tides, at all seasons.
Gymnogongrus Griffithsi/e, Ag.
The color, size, and method of branching of
this plant is much the same as that of the last.
But it differs from that by not being flat, but quite
cylindrical. The frond is not thicker than a bristle.
It grows from one and one-half to two and one-
half inches high, in tufts, upon rocks, between tides,
each frond somewhat regularly forking three or four
times. The "fruit is held in little, dark-colored, j)romi-
nent swellings, in the end branches. It has the same
geographical range, and the same habitat as the last.
Gymnogongrus linearis, Ag.
This is a much larger plant than either of the
others, some in my herbarium being not less than
212 - SEA MOSSES.
six inches high, and eight inches in the spread of
the frond. The general habit of growth is the same
as that of G. leptophyllus.
Rising by a flattened stem, which, two inches
from the base, widely forks, the two parts themselves
fork three or four times. The segments are nowhere
more than one-fifth of an inch wide, and all gradu-
ally taper towards the end, the ultimate ones being
long and slender.
The fruit-vessels stand out like hemispherical
warts, one-tenth to one-eighth of an inch in diam-
eter, upon the flat side of the frond. Color of the
plant a dark red ; substance, thickish, cartilaginous^
leathery. The general distribution and habitat are
the same as that of the other Pacific species, along
the whole coast of California.
Gexwis.—AIfNFELTIA* Ag.
AhNFELTIA PLICATA,t Fr.
This species is very common from New York
northward, and is also found sparingly at some points,
on the west coast. It is extremely easy of identifi-
* Ahnfeltia. Named for Ahnfelt, a German botanist,
t Plicata = Folded or doubled up.
RED ALG^. 213
cation. If you find thrown upon the beach, or
growing upon the rocks, between tides, a tangled
bunch of black, branched, crooked, very stiff, wire-
like sea-weed, half as big as your fist, or larger,
the wires as thick as large pins, or knitting-needles,
you may be sure it is A. plicata.
It is very irregularly and profusely branched,
sometimes by widely forking, sometimes four or five
branches will grow out close together from the side
of the stem, and perpendicular to it; and the parts
spreading and bending by sharp angles in all ways,
the plant will be tangled and intricate, beyond de-
scription.
Again, it will grow up, and by the upward ten-
dency of the branches, and something like regular
forkings, will attain a considerable perpendicular
height, six to ten inches, or so, and appear to have
some systematic plan of life. These forms, I have
collected somewhat abundantly at Newport. But the
first-described aspect is by far the most common.
On being exposed on the beach for some time,
it will be found faded or bleached perfectly white.
It does not adhere to paper, and is altogether as
unmanageable a bit of vegetable crookedness and
perversity, as one would care to meet. It is too
common to require the naming of special localities.
214 SEA MOSSES,
Ahnfeltia gigartinoides, Ag.
This plant is found only on the California coast.
It is reported not common at Santa Cruz and quite
rare at Santa Barbara. It is a more robust and, by
far. less profusely or irregularly branching plant, than
the last.
The specimens in my herbarium are six inches
high, some of them rising for three inches in a
single cyhndrical stem, and then forking regularly and
evenly in one plane six times, giving sixty-four ter-
minal points to the plant. Others fork fewer times,
and less widely, and nearer the bottom of the stem,
and then stretch out in long segments two or three
inches, before they divide for the second and third
time. Like the other, it does not adhere to paper,
and its substance is hard and horny when dry.
Color, a dark red.
Qexwxs.— CYSTOCLONIUM* Kutz.
CySTOCLONIUM PURPURASCENS, KtJTZ.
The purple Cystodonium is a very common, some-
times a provokingly common, coarse, bushy, and
* Cystodonium = Bladdery branches.
RED ALG^, 215
*
generally uninteresting plant. It grows everywhere
along our eastern coast, but more plentiful, I think,
in our northern waters. At least, my correspondents
so report it. It grows between tides, on the rocks,
in tide pools, and in deep water.
The main stem runs through the whole plant,
thick as a match, somewhat translucent and fleshy,
a foot or so high, when full grown. It is irregularly
much branched all around, with branches which are
themselves branched like the main stem. The ultimate
branches are somewhat narrowed at the base, and
attenuated into acute points, and sometimes into
long, slender, hair-like prolongations at the top.
In variety cirrhosa, these attenuated ramuli have
the habit of twisting themselves into spirals, like the
tendrils of the pea or grape vine, and wind them-
selves about the branches of neighboring plants, quite
after the manner of their more cultivated cousins, the
vines. The variety, is perhaps quite as common as
the normal form on pur shores, and will be likely
first to attract the notice of the attentive eye, to
the species.
Much trimming will be needed to make the plant
presentable on paper. The color varies from a light
red brown to a dark purple, or even black, when dry.
You will often find that the lesser branches are much
216 SEA MOSSES.
swollen at points, into what appear to be little
''bladders," as the name of the plant mentions.
This is caused by the interior nodules of fruit bulging
the ramulus out at these points. It may be collected
during the whole season. In some places it will
make no inconsiderable part of the mass of smaller
weeds, which are found piled up on the beach.
Genus.— CALL OFUVLLIS* KUtz.
One of the marked features, of the marine flora
of California, are the large and brilliant plants of this
genus. None of the red Algae excel them in brilliancy
of color, and few in size of plant, in spread of frond,
or variety of form. They are common everywhere
on the coast, and grow mostly in deep water.
Callophyllis variegata, Ag.
None are more common or more variable than
the plants of this species. It is rightly named. Plate
XVI. shows a common, and what may be considered
a typical form of it. It gives at least the general
method of the division of the frond. And yet many
plants are far removed from this form, by having all
the segments very narrow and long, one-eighth of
* Callophyllis = Beautiful leaf.
RED ALG^. 217
an inch wide, and six inches long ; or very wide,
from an inch to an inch and a quarter broad, and
no more than half a foot long.
But the deeply cleft, widely spreading, flat frond,
with the segments wedge-shaped, and the extreme
ends of all the parts notched in, more or less angularly,
are unmistakable marks of the species under all forms.
It adheres fairly well to paper. Color, from a darkish
to a bright red. The older parts of the plant are
thick. The fruit appears in hemispherical warts,
scattered over the surface of the frond. Dr. Farlow
expressed to me the opinion, that California plants,
which have been distributed under the name C.
discigera, are only extreme forms of C. variegata,
while those which have been called by collectors C.
ornata, are really none other than members of the
species to be next described, viz. :
Callophyllis furcata, Farlow.
Starting from a mere point, where the frond
is attached, it widens out till it is from half
an inch to an inch wide, and several inches
long, and then divides in various ways, mostly
by the process of splitting. The clefts are narrow
and deep, and some of them run near to the
base of the frond ; or starting together from the
218 SEA MOSSES,
widest part, the clefts run to the end outward, and
the segments are arranged Uke the fingers of the
hand, when spread apart somewhat ; or the frond may-
be long and narrow, with an occasional fork.
In every case, except that of the deeply cleft fronds,
the lobes are bordered on both edges by a multitude
of tongue-shaped leaflets, from one to two inches
long, and from one-eighth to one-half an inch wide,
much attenuated at base, and with a somewhat
rounded point at top. The color is a deep, darkish
red. The substance is firm, and in old plants, thick
and hard when dry. The fruit, in prominent warts,
is scattered over the surface of the frond. The plants
in my herbarium range from four to fourteen inches
in height. It grows between tides at all seasons,
and is not uncommon at Santa Cruz, and other parts
of the coast
Callophyllis flabellulata, Harv.
This species is more decidedly fan-shaped in
outline, and in the division and spread of its main
branches, than either of the other species. The prin-
ciple stem forks, but not widely, and these again
fork ; then, at a distance of half an inch or so, they
divide into half a dozen different segments, each of
which repeats the same process, two or three times.
The segments are from one-fourth to one-sixteenth of
Cai.koimivlli.s varii;(;a ia, ^lo.
PLATE X\
RED ALG^. 219
an inch wide, and the extreme ends are notched in,
not unlike those of the Euthora cristata.
Agardh takes notice that the whole plant resembles
some forms of that species. I am not informed
whether or not they are commonly found larger than
those in ray herbarium. These are two inches high,
and about three inches wide. The color is a bright
rose red, and the substance thin and delicate, adher-
ing well to paper. It is a common plant at all
seasons, north of Santa Barbara, and grows between
tides and below, on other Algae.
Genus.— GIGARTINA* Lam.
This genus, which has several large and showy
species on the Pacific coast, and in other parts of
the world, has but one, rather humble and insignificant
representative, on our eastern shores.
The fronds of the Pacific plants are inclined to
be thick, fleshy and bulky ; and all the species show,
in some form, the presence of the papillose or tuber-
culose processes, which characterize, and give the
genus its name. The plants are of a decidedly
gelatinous substance, and one can readily see, that
• Gigartina = Grape stones, referring to fruit-beariug tubercles on the frond.
220 SEA MOSSES.
they might be easily applied to culinary uses in the
same way as the "' Irish Moss."
GiGARTINA MAMILLOSA, AG.
This plant grows near low-tide, in Massachusetts
Bay, and northward, upon the rocks, among the
" Irish Moss " or Chondriis crispus, which it much
resembles in appearance. It has very much the
same habit of growth, a flattened, leathery, tough
frond, forking from near the base, dividing and sub-
dividing in the same way, broadly and openly. The
segments are more or less wedge-shaped, and have
a tendency to roll their edges inward, toward one
surface, making a channel on that side. It differs
from the Chondrus, by having on the inside, or con-
cave side of the frond, a numerous growth of papillose
protuberances. These readily distinguish the plant,
and give it its specific name.
I have collected it in considerable quantities at
Marblehead, and Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Bray find it
among the commonest plants on Cape Ann, as Mr.
Collins does also at Nahant. It is common at Santa
Cruz and northward. The color is a very dark purple,
black and rigid when dry. It does not adhere to
paper.
RED ALG^. 221
GiGARTINA RADULA,* AG.
This, and the remaining species of this genus,
are exclusively natives of the Pacific coast. This is
the largest and most pretentious species of the genus.
It has a large, flat, thick, dark, livid red frond, which
takes on in different plants quite a variety of forms
and outHnes. But in the main, it is simple, or if
divided, then only by the presence of one or two
clefts of greater or less depth.
It puts out no branches or leaflets, but is more
or less thickly peppered over with warly protuberances,
which seen along the edges of the frond in profile,
appear to be mostly minute globes, a half or a quarter
as large as a pin head, set upon short stalks.
The frond itself rises from a short, flattened stem,
from which it more or less rapidly widens to a breadth
of several inches, then, in the simpler forms, rounds
off", usually very bluntly, at the top. The largest speci-
men in my herbarium is fourteen inches long, and six
inches wide in the middle, tapering more rapidly
and acutely to the top than to the bottom. But another
specimen, ten inches long, and four and a half broad,
tapers quite acutely to the base, and is very broad
and blunt at top, even cut in, heart-shaped.
* Radula «= A scraper.
222 SEA MOSSES.
I have seen much larger plants than either of
these. The variety exasperata, grows two or three
feet long, and six to ten inches wide. But the heavy,
thick, mostly simple, flat frond will serve to distinguish
this from either of the other species. My California
correspondents all report it very common from San
Diego to Santa Cruz, growing between tides, on rocks
the year around, or below tide, and in the sluice
ways. It is truly a noble plant, and with its livid red
color must be a striking feature, rising and faUing in
the green waters.
GiGARTINA SPINOSA,* KUTZ.
This resembles the last species only in its thick,
leathery substance, and its roughened, spiney surface.
The protuberances are pointed, and not rounded at
the end, as in G. radiila, and they often attain con-
siderable length.
The form of the frond is extremely variable. Some-
times it rises from a cyHndrical stem, flattens broadly,
and then divides, as the hand divides into fingers.
Again", it keeps its main frond entire, and simple, taper-
ing gradually and gracefully to base and apex, and
throws out from each edge a multitude of long, narrow
leaflets, pointed above and below. These are some-
* Spinosa =: Thorny.
RED ALG^, 223
times simple, and sometimes forked, from one to three
inches long, and from one-eighth to one-third of an
inch wide.
Both the main frond and the leaflets are covered
with a profusion of the stout spinose, or papillose
processes peculiar to the genus. Color, a dark red,
brown, or purple. It grows from six to twelve inches
high, upon the rocks, between tides, and below, at all
seasons. Dr. Dimmick and Mrs. Bingham report it
very common at Santa Barbara, upon the rocks near
shore. But Mr. Cleveland at San Diego, and Dr.
Anderson at Santa Cruz, find it not So plentiful as
the last, or the next species.
GiGARTINA MICROPHYLLA,* HaRV.
The most characteristic difference between this
plant and the two preceding species, is its much
lighter and thinner frond, and its slenderer, spore-
bearing spines. It rises from a disk by a flattened
short stem, which more or less rapidly expands into
a wide, thin, flat frond. This remains simple or else
divides into two or three segments, each of which
tapers into a long, slender, pointed apex. This atten-
uation of the plant at the top, seems to be character-
istic of the species. It is thickly covered with the
Microphylla =^ Small-leaved.
224 SEA MOSSES.
long slender spines, and often bears a few small,
thin leaflets along its edges. It grows to the height
of twelve or sixteen inches or more, and is an inch
or an inch and a half wide. The color is a deep,
brownish red. It is abundant along the whole Cali-
fornia coast. It may be found near the wharf, at
Santa Barbara, and at the beach, and mussel beds,
at La JoUa, San Diego.
A plant, which the botanists have insisted upon
calling a variety of this, var. horrida, but which differs
from it in all respects, quite as much as G. spinosa
does, is very common along the whole coast. It is
a much smaller plant, thicker, and darker colored,
and vastly more profusely and irregularly divided, and
branched, than the typical form. It is literally clothed
in almost every part, with long, closely set, simple
or branched spines. Its appearance well entitles it
to the cognomen " horrid." It is present in considerable
numbers, in almost every gathering of California
" Sea Mosses " which one gets. Why it is not worthy
of a regular specific " local habitation and a name,"
is more than appears clear to me.
GiGARTINA CANALICULATA, HaRV.
This, also, is a very common species on the Cal-
ifornia coast, but quite unlike any other representa-
RED ALG^, 225
live of the genus found there. It rises from a few
matted fibres in a narrow, flattened stem, one-tenth
of an inch wide, whose edges are shghtly turned
upon one side, making a channel on that side, and
leaving the other slightly convex. It is bare for an
inch or more, and then forks or irregularly branches
from its two edges. The opposite branches divide
and sub-divide once or twice, after a more or less
pinnate fashion. The ultimate ramuh, which are mi-
nute spines, often bear the fruit in swollen and
rounded vessels, developed in their middle in such a
way as frequently to turn the end of the spine down
at right angles to its general axis, so as to make
the whole bear a striking resemblance to a minute
bird's head, bill and ah.
It grows in dense tufts, from two to four inches
high, in tide pools, and on the rocks between tides,
all the season through. Dr. Dimmick collects it at
Castle Point, Santa Barbara, but it may be looked
for, I suppose, in favorable localities everywhere.
The younger parts of the plant adhere well to paper.
«5
226 SEA MOSSES,
Gerwis.— CBONDRUS* Lam.
Chondrus CRispus,t Lyngb.
This is the famous " Irish Moss " of commerce.
It is collected in large quantities on our eastern
coast, exposed to the sun to dry and bleach, and
then sold to the grocer for his customers to make
blanc mange of. It grows very common upon the
rocks between tides, and a little below, and is as
variable a plant as it is common. It is so well
known in the East that it hardly need a special de-
scription. For others, I may, perhaps, venture to ap-
pend a brief account.
The fronds are from three to six inches high;
thick, tough and leathery. At first, it is a flattened
stem ; this, at the height of an inch or more, when
it is from one-eighth to one-half an inch broad,
forks widely. Thence, at varying distances, the parts
divide and sub-divide, in the same way five or six
times. The frond exhibits all the possible variations
between the long and narrow, and the short and
tvide, and all shades of color, between an olive green
jid a very dark purple, or jet black.
The purple and other dark shades are apt to be
♦ Chondrus ^ Cartilage.
t Crispus as Curled.
RED ALGyE. 227
sheeny, or iridescent, in the water, and are some-
times among the most beautiful plants to be found
growing in the tide pools, especially when the sun
shines upon them. It turns much darker, and does
not adhere to paper, in drying. Its geographical
range is from the Carolinas north, on the east coast.
It is not found on the Pacific side of the conti-
nent, though two other species of the genus, which
I have not thought it best to give an account of,
do occur there, viz. : C. canaliculatus and C. affiniSy
the latter of which, Dr. Farlow thinks, may be a
variety of the former.
G^enus.—IRID^A* Bory.
Irid^a laminarioides, Bory.
This species sufficiently characterizes the genus.
It has a large, wide, thick, membraneous frond, aris-
ing from a stalk two inches long, which is at first
cylindrical and then flattened. The frond is usually
simple, though sometimes lobed ; from one to two
feet long and from one to three inches wide, smooth
when barren, warty when bearing the true fruit, and
* Iridza = Many colors.
a^ SJ£A MOSSES.
thickly dotted over, when bearing tetraspores, with
small, colored, raised spots.
Dried, the plant is stiff, substantial, and tough,
and of a very dark red color. It is among the
commonest of plants at Santa Cruz, at all seasons,
near low-tide mark on the rocks, and in tide pools.
It is very scarce at Santa Barbara, growing on small
rocks near low-tide, and is altogether absent at San
Diego. No representative of the genus is found on
our eastern shores.
Order.— CRYPTONEMIE^,
Genu^.— FRIONITIS* Ag.
This is a very common form on the whole of
the west coast. The genus is characterized when
dry, by a thickish, hard, smooth, leathery, flat frond,
of a dark red-brown color.
Prionitis lanceolata, Harv.
The specific name refers to the lance-shaped
leaflets, which are found upon the edges of its
branches. The plant has a narrow, flattened frond,
one-tenth of an inch wide, which sparingly forks, or
branches from its two edges, in a very irregular,
* Prionitis = A little saw.
RED ALG^. 229
straggling manner, usually with long distances between
the divisions. Although it is an extremely variable
plant, it is not difficult to recognize, when once
known, as it contrives, in some way, to show its spe-
cific peculiarity, viz. : the putting out of minute lance-
shaped leaflets, along the edges of the long, ultimate
branchlets, which always stand out perpendicularly to
the axis of the branch. These are very much con-
stricted at the base, but rounded more or less at
the top, and are from one-sixteenth to one-half an
inch in length. The plant attains, in full growth, a
height of ten inches or more.
Mr. Cleveland finds it, from October to May,
washed upon the shore from deep water, at San
Diego. At Santa Barbara, it is found in the same
situation, also growing on the rocks near shore. Dr.
Anderson finds it on shelving rocks and in tide pools,
all the year, at Santa Cruz. It is extremely common
everywhere.
Prionitis Andersonii, Eaton.
This is a much larger plant than the last. It is
common at Santa Cruz, but somewhat rare on other
parts of the coast. It was named by Prof. Eaton,
for that most industrious and zealous Algologist, Dr.
Anderson, of Santa Cruz. The plants are a foot or
230 SEA MOSSES.
more high, and usually consist of a main frond,
which is flat, thick, and of a dark red color, taper-
ing to a point above and below, with a marked
tendency to bend toward one edge like a sabre.
This may be the whole of the plant, and then the
frond will measure a foot in length, and an inch in
width, at the widest part.
Commonly, however, this is but the central part
of a large and widely-spreading plant, the secondary
fronds, branching from the sides of the main frond.
Sometimes, this may be comparatively small, no more
than two inches long, and three- tenths of an inch
wide, and throw out on each edge a considerable
number of long, flat, tapering, sabre- shaped frondlets,
perhaps, a foot or more long. Again, the main
stem may be three times as large every way, and
the branches no more than four or five inches. So
they vary in relative size and proportion. The
plants of this species are usually of a deep red, wine
color. They do not adhere to paper.
Ger\u^.— SARCOFBYLLIS, Ag,
Sarcophyllis Californica.
This and another species, 6". edulis, Agardh takes
RED ALG^. 231
from the old genus, Schizymenia, to make this new
genus of.
It has no stalk, but expands upwards into the
wedge-shaped base of the broad, thickish membrane.
The one before me, kindly lent by Prof. Eaton, is
not more than five inches long, but is quite two
inches wide at its widest part, tapering to a rounded
point at the top. The membrane is simple, but
more or less torn. The color is a dark purple,
darker in drying.
It is not very common at Santa Cruz, growing on
rocks and weeds, on rocky beaches. It is not else-
where reported in Cahfornia, and it does not occur
at all on our eastern coast, though its generic con-
gener, S. edulis, is common enough on the west coast
of Europe.
Qierwis.— GRATELOUPIA* Ag.
Grateloupia cutleri^, Kutz.
This is a large, coarse, flat, extremely variable
plant, quite common on the California coast, except
in the extreme south, where Mr. Cleveland sets it
* Grateloupia. Named for Dr. Grateloup, a French Algologist.
232 SBA MOSSES,
down as a rarity. It often attains the height of two
or three feet. Sometimes the frond will be perfectly
simple, an inch wide, and two feet long, tapering
to a narrow base and apex ; sometimes a foot high
and three or four inches wide ; smooth and blunt
at top ; colored so as to closely resemble a frond
of IridcBa laminar ioides^ from which then, it is
possible to distinguish it only by a microscopical dis-
section, of the structure of the plant. Again, it will
be deeply cleft into many lobes from near the bot-
tom to the top ; and, at other times, it will put
out a series of leaflets from both edges ; or it will
combine both these departures from simplicity in one
plant ; or it will throw out from the truncated top
of a long, wide, simple frond, a number of long,
narrow frondlets, much attenuated at each end.
The color is a reddish brown, changing by fad-
ing to various shades of brown and purple, and even
to a dull green, or dirty white. Sometimes all these
colors will be found in the same frond. It grows
in deep water, plentiful in the north. Dr. Dimmick
finds it very common near the light-house, at Santa
Barbara. It may be looked for at all seasons.
RED ALGM. 233
Ox6ex.— DUMONTIEJ^,
QxQxwxs,.— HALOSACCION* Kutz,
HaLOSACCION RAMENTACEUM,t Ag.
This is truly an Arctic plant, growing only in
northern waters, but there sufficiently plentiful. So
far as I know, it has not been found south of
Gloucester. Mrs. Davis finds it in deep tide pools,
from April to August, at Brace's Cove, Gloucester ;
and Mrs. Bray on rocks, in tide pools, plentiful at
Bass Rocks, Gloucester. Harvey figures it as a plant
twelve to fourteen inches high, when full grown ; with
a pronounced leading stem as thick as a crow's quill
at the middle, much attenuated at the base, and
somewhat so at the top ; clothed on all sides above
the middle with an abundance of branches, half as
large as the main stem, from one to three inches
long, mostly simple, but sometimes branched, and
always attenuated at base and apex. Both stem and
branches are hollow.
My American plants are of a decided red color ;
bu; 1 have Spitzbergen plants, from Prof. Kjell-
man, of Sweden, which are of a dull purple color,
* Halosaccion = Sea-bag.
t Ramentaceum = Branched.
234 SEA MOSSES.
and differ from Dr. Harvey's figure in the much
greater length of their branches. Prof. Eaton de-
scribes a variety which he calls gladiatum, found in
abundance at Eastport, Maine, wliich differs much
from the normal form. It is flattened, wide, near
one inch in the middle, but sword-shaped and atten-
uated at both ends ; sometimes simple, and some-
times branched on the edges. Some specimens in
my herbarium show tendencies toward that form. It
is a variable but not uninteresting plant, and collectors
along the coast of Maine, and the Provinces, will not
fail to find it in plenty, on the rocks, near low-tide.
Order.— SPYRIDIEM,
Genus.— SPYRWIA* Barv,
Spyridia filamentosa, Harv.
This plant is an inhabitant of the warmer seas.
It is found common only on our southern shores.
I know of no well authenticated case of its having
been found north of Cape Cod. But south of the
Cape it certainly is as common as almost any plant.
I certainly found it in abundance at Newport, from
• Spyridia = A small basket, referring to the
RED ALG^^. 236
July to October, and in Providence River, in August.
Miss Booth found it not uncommon at Peconic Bay,
and other points about the east end of Long Island.
It is also reported by Harvey, at various places in
our southern waters, as far as Key West.
The frond is fiHform, not usually thicker than a
bristle, from three to six inches or more high, gen-
erally much and irregularly branched, the branches
spreading widely, and being themselves divided and
sub-divided into a wealth of lesser ramifications.
The branchlets, when young, are visibly articulate;
and all of the smaller branches, and often all the
branches, are clothed throughout with a light growth
of very delicate, hair-like filaments, not much over
one-tenth of an inch long. These are plainly visible
to the naked eye, and give the name, and charac-
teristic mark, of the species. The color is a purplish
red, but the hue may change by fading through all
shades to a pale green or yellow. It grows below
tide marks, a fathom or two, and so must be looked
for, among the floating burden of the sea. It ad-
heres fairly to paper, and with its fine and grace-
fully disposed branches, and its soft haze of fairy
filaments, bordering all, it makes a very pretty spec-
imen.
SEA MOSSES.
Order.— CERAMIEM.
Gex\yxs.— MICRO CLADIA* Grev,
MlCR^CLADIA COULTERI, HaRV.
Probably very few people collect "Sea Mosses
on the Pacific coast, who do not get plenty of this,
species with every gathering. No package of dried
Algae, or fasciculus of mounted specimens, comes
from that coast, to the botanists or lovers of Algae
in the east, which docs not contain some of these
interesting and beautiful plants.
It has a cylindrical or slightly flattened stem, twice
as thick as a bristle which runs fully through the
plant, and sends out branches from its two edges,
in one or the other, or both of the following ways,
viz. : The regularly alternate branches are set on the
two sides, at an almost perfectly uniform distance,
and rise at the same angle from the main stem, so
that they " lay out " quite parallel. Near the base,
the branches are short, but gradually become longer
towards the middle of the frond, then shorten again,
towards the apex, so as to give the whole plant a
quite perfect "lanceolate" outline. Or, again, the
plant will throw out several long branches from each
* Microcladia = Minute tirandie*.
RED ALG^^, 237
side, near the base, and each of these, together with
the main stem in its upper part, will develop the
typical outline just now described.
It remains to be said that the primary branches
themselves, branch in the same manner, by short,
alternate, secondary branches, and these, again, divide
up in the same, regular way, the ultimate ramuli at
the end being invariably incuived, and growing shorter
and shorter to the end of the branch. This regular
habit of branching, the graceful outline of the plant,
and the many shades of red and dehcate pink which
it assumes, make it a great favorite with collectors.
It does not adhere very well to paper, and on
that account is all the more easily detached, and
woven into those beautiful " Sea Moss " pictures, which
some of the fair admirers of these plants are fond
of making. With them, this plant becomes a great
favorite. Its fine and delicate ramifications, and its
great faithfulness in retaining its normal shape, when
once pressed and dried, make it very serviceable for
such uses.
It attains a height of six or eight inches. It
may be found at all seasons in great abundance, on
the rocky beaches, between tides and below, upon
rocks and other Algae, especially upon Gigartina
radula.
238 SEA MOSSES.
MiCROCLADIA CaLIFORNICA, FaRLOW.
In general form and substance, this very much
resembles the last species, but differs a little in the
disposition of the ultimate ramuli. But a perfectly
unmistakable mark may be found in the position of
the fruit. And it would not be exactly safe to call
any specimen M. Califo?'nica, which does not demon-
strate its identity by having fruit.
In M. Coulteri, the fruit is borne on the inside
of the ultimate ramulus, and is surrounded by a little
whorl, of incurved, short, spine-like processes, which
partly inclose it. In M. Californica, the fruit is
borne on the outside of the ramulus, and is bare,
and destitute of this inclosing whorl. The species is
not as common as the last, but is found growing in
the same situations along with that.
MiCROCLADIA BOREALIS, RUPR.
Our artist has given such a good picture of this
beautiful plant, in Fig. 2, Plate VII, that it cannot
be necessary to enter into a detailed verbal descrip-
tion of it. There is nothing in the waters of the
Northern Pacific that can possibly be mistaken for it.
It will be observed that the very graceful outline
of the plant, is obtained by carrying out, in detail,
a perfecdy uniform and very simple method of branch-
Piii.oT.x i'Li'.\r()s\. Ae'. var. srrha'ia,
'LATE V-
RED ALGyE. 23'"
ing, viz. : putting every secondary branch upon the
inside of its primary, and bending the primary out-
ward and backward. This plant could hardly fail to
give a fruitful hint, for a decorative design, \o any
artistic mind.
It is found only in the northern waters of the
Pacific, as its name implies. But it is common at
Santa Cruz, in tide pools, at all seasons. It is of a
very dark brown color, often almost black. It does
not very perfectly adhere to paper, and so like its
"next of kin," M. Coulteri, it becomes a very useful
plant in working out beautiful " Sea Moss " designs.
Qenus.— CERAMIUM* Ag.
This genus furnishes several of our most common
and most beautiful ''Sea Mosses." There are plenty
of good reasons for all being favorites with collectors.
The distinguishing characteristics of the genus are
either or both of the following, viz. : i. The ten-
dency of the tops of the branches to bend in
towards each other, the last fork being quite in-
curved and hooked, like two minute fish-hooks, turned
point to point. 2. The variegation of the stems and
branches, as seen with a good pair of eyes, or
• CersMniom = A pitcher, referring to finnt.
240 SEA MOSSES.
under a pocket lens, by alternate bands of lighter
and darker color, sometimes white and black, some-
times white and red, and sometimes two shades of
red. This characteristic never fails, except sometimes
in the older parts of very robust specimens of C.
rubrum.
Ceramium rubrum,* Ag.
This plant is common, not only throughout our
entire eastern and western coasts, but in almost every
sea upon the globe. I doubt if there is another so
thorough-going cosmopolite, in the whole marine flora
of the world.
It grows upon everything, rocks, and stones, and
shells, and almost all sorts of sea plants. This abil-
ity to be on a good footing with every kind of com-
panionship, and to feel at home wherever it can find
a place to stand, and sprout, and grow, will account,
perhaps, for its universal presence and its wide distri-
bution.
It grows in pools, between tides, and in deep
water. It is extremely variable in appearance, and
will sometimes almost "deceive the very elect," into
believing they have found some other species. It
grows from two to ten inches high, thicker than a
* Rubrum = Re4.
RED ALG.^. 241
bristle in the larger parts, often, indeed, as stout as
wrapping- twine, and always has a coarse appearance.
It branches mostly by forking, the lower divisions
.distant, the upper ones nearer and nearer together,
sometimes narrow, and sometimes widely spreading.
The segments attenuate as they divide. The apices
are either slightly incurved or quite hooked. The
variegated bands are less plainly marked in this, than
in either of the other species to be described, and
rarely appear as other than light, or dark shades, of
the prevaihng red.
The microscopist will find the plant covered
throughout with a coating or ''bark" of small cells.
In the other species to be described, this coating is
not continuous, but extends only as rings, of a red
or dark color, about the nodes or joints of the
frond. This is a sure guide to it in all the many
forms which the species will assume.
To the collector, who depends upon his eyes and
his pocket lens, the deep, full red color, which, in-
deed, may be faded out by exposure, the general
appearance of coarseness, combined with the incurved
or hooked apices, will be a sufficiently safe ground
for saying that his plant, as he pulls it from the
water, is C, rcbrum.
a^ SEA MOSSES.
Ceramium Deslongchampsii, Ch.
This species Harvey describes as C. Hooperi, in
honor of his friend, Mr. J. Hooper, of Brooklyn,
N. Y., an enthusiastic and intelligent Algologist,
who with Professor Bailey and others, as I have
already mentioned in the " Introdction," did much
in that time, to help forward Harvey's study of our
plants. They all find ample acknowledgement in
the pages of the " Nereis."
But it is conceded now that this is no new
species, but an old and not uncommon one, on
the shores of Europe. It is common along our
northern coast, north of Nahant. I found it in
plenty at Marblehead, and Mr. Collins at Kahant
on the sides of perpendicular rocks, overhung with
Fuci. Mrs. Davis collects it on rocks in tide pools
at Gloucester. Professor Verrill found it on the
piles of the wharf at Eastport, and Mr. Prudden at
Grand Man an. It grows from two to four or five
inches high, from a mass of creeping filaments.
The fronds are not much coarser than human hair,
and divide throughout by true but not very wide,
forkings. The apices are attenuated, sharply pointed,
and but slightly incurved or bent, mostly straight
or awl-shaped.
Under a lens the markings or variegated bands
RED ALGjE. 243
are clearly seen. The dark ones keep the uniform
proportion of being almost exactly as long as broad,
or quite square in every part of the frond. The
white bands vary very much in length, and are
longest in the old parts of the plant, and gradually
shorten toward the apices. The color is a dark
purple, which sometimes is given out in pressing and
drying, so as to stain the paper red or purple. It
may be looked for, all the collecting season through,
on the sides of perpendicular rocks near low-tide
mark.
Ceramium strictum,* Harv.
This is probably the species which Harvey describes
in the " Nereis," under the name of C. diaphanum.
Nothing is more common than it and the next species,
except it be C. rubrum, all along our southern shores.
The plant grows in lufis, from two to four inches
high, as fine as hair, and divides or branches, by
narrowish forks, more and more close, towards the
extremity of the frond.
The variegated appearance of the frond is plainly
visible to the naked eye. The dark red or purplish
bands, are relatively very short, especially toward
the base of the plant, where the white interstices are
* Strictum = Drawn toget'ier, close, tight.
jMi SEA MOSSES.
three or four times longer than broad. Toward the
apices these shorten, till they are not much longer
than the colored bands. The apices are sometimes
only incurved, but more frequently hooked.
It may always be distinguished from the next,
with which only is it likely to be confounded, by
its somewhat greater length ; its narrower forking ;
its decided tinge of purple in the prevailing
red, of the dry plant; and the fact that the
fronds of a tuft appear to be of a considerably
different length, so that the outline of the mounted tuft
will be decidedly uneven and jagged. I collected it
in abundance at Newport and Wood's Holl, in the
summer and fall. I have never found it in Massachu-
setts Bay. But Mr. ColHns reports it as not uncommon
in the warm waters, on the muddy bottom of Mystic
river marshes, about Boston. And Mrs. Davis collects
it in the river, at Little Good Harbor, Gloucester.
Ceramium fastigiatum,* Harv.
This I consider our most beautiful Cramium. It
is very common at all points, where I have visited
the south shore of New England and New York,
especially at Newport, where I took hundreds of
splendid plants. It grows on Zostera, Chondrus
* Fastigiatum = Sharp pointed.
lEKAMHTM FASTIGIATUM, Ha r
^- Ai.i.i riiAMNKjN t (.];^^II■.()s^^r, Ao
^LA-
RED ALG^. 245
crispus, and other Algae, in pools, or below tide.
Its most usual form is that of a dense globose tuft,
from one to two inches in diameter, of a brilliant red
color.
It is very easily seen and caught, as it comes float-
ing in upon the waves. Examined particularly, it
will be found fmer than human hair, of much the
same thickness throughout, branched by wide forkings,
the forks coming nearer and nearer together, toward'
the end of the frond, see Plate XIX., Fig. 2.
The beautiful pink bands are, relatively to the
colorless interstices, very short. They are, in fact,
shorter than the diameter of the frond, so that under
the lens, they appear to be rectangular patches of
color, longer crosswise than lengthwise of the frond.
The white spaces between, shorten as we proceed
from the base to the top of the frond, thus bringing;
the colored bands closer and closer together.
The filaments in the tufts are of the same general
length, as are also their several divisions. This
makes the tuft level-topped, and produces that globose
appearance which is so characteristic of the species.
It also causes that constant tendency of the plant,
when mounted on paper, to display its terminal
branchlets in some segment of a circle. This
difference in outline, the shorter and more uniform
246 SJSA MOSSJSS.
length of the frond, and the more brilliant pink color,
with no admixture of purple, easily distinguish this
species from the last.
C. arachnoideiim^ which Harvey figures and
describes, Table XXXIII. B., of the "Nereis," Dr.
Farlow thinks may be a variety of C. fastigiaium,
but is in doubt. He declares, on the authority of
Agardh, that it is not the same as the species of that
name in the European flora. I took it in unlimited
quantities, in the little harbor at Wood's Holl, the
last of October. It is, indeed, a very beautiful and
interesting plant.
Genus.— PTILOTA* Ag.
The plants of this genns, which contains two
eastern and three western species, are characterized
by their cartilaginous, flattened, narrow, pinnately
branched, feathery or fern-like fronds. The two
eastern species may be easily distinguished by the
relative fineness and the place of growth of the two
plants ; the three western, by certain marked
peculiarities of appearance and ramification.
Ptilota plumosa, Ag.
The var. serrata of this genus is a very common
• Ptilota = pinnated, furnished with plumes.
RED ALG^. 247
plant in deep water, all along our coast, north of
Boston. It grows, attached to rocks and stones, in
the bottom of the sea, and to the stems and roots of
Laminaria. It will be found in great abundance
on all open beaches where the waves have deposited
it, brought up from the depths.
The frond is three to six inches in extent, one-
sixteenth to one-eighth of an inch wide, flattened,
tough, cartilaginous, irregularly, pinnately branched
from the edges, branches likewise flattened and
branched from their edges, all in one plane. Plate
XVII., is an exact copy of a specimen m my herbarium,
and very fairly represents the beauties of this plant,
as well as the pinnate method of branching, common
to the genus.
The peculiarity of the species is the dissimilarity
of the opposite pinnae on the ultimate branches.
From the branches there will spring forth on one
side a beautiful little plume or pinna, while exactly
opposite to it, will be a short, curved, undivided
spine-like process, somewhat thickened, and often
toothed on the outer edge ; all the ultimate divisions
stand out almost at right angles to the branches.
The color is red. A perennial, perfect in summer;
adheres, but rather imperfectly to paper. It need
not be looked for south of Cape Cod, but it is
248 SEA MOSSES. "^
found on the coast of California, and in the north
Pacific very common.
Ptilota elegans, Bonnem.
This is a much more deHcate plant than the last,
narrower, thinner and of a darker color. It is common
from New York northward. It may be found almost
always growing upon the perpendicular sides of cliffs,
under the overhanging " Rockweed," near low-water
mark. That is the only situation in which I have
ever seen it growing. But I have collected it in no
little abundance about the beach, at Newport, in the
summer and fall, among the mass of sea weed left
by the waves. There, it must grow in deep water.
The fronds are nearly cylindrical, but branch
like the last, from opposite sides in one plane, decom-
pound pinnate, the pinnae and pinnulae opposite and
alike, though, I think, in most cases one of them is
apt to be much smaller than the other. The large
and small parts alternate, so that the symmetry oi
the frond is maintained. Often the smaller pinnule
is suppressed altogether, and the branching will thence
seem to be alternate.
The ultimate ramuli are composed of a single row
of square or oblong cells. This is a fine, delicate
and beautiful plant. It adheres well to paper. The
RED ALGAi, 249
young plumules make beautiful microscopical speci-
mens, if mounted in some fluid which does not shrink
the cells. The beauty, as well as the interest of
the specimen, will be enhanced if the plant bears
upon the tips of its plumules, the tetrasporic fruit.
The color is a darkish purple, more or less red in
the younger parts.
PriLOTA DENSA, AG.
This and the two following species belong to
California. The frond is compressed, one-eighth of
an inch wide, thick, cartilaginous, from three to
twelve inches high. The leading stem bears along
its edges stout branches, which are either simple or
branched, on the same plan as the main stem. The
axils of the primary branches make an angle of about
45°. The ultimate pinnae, which clothe the edges
of the whole plant, are closely set, making a dense
border to the frond, of very uniform length, one-
tenth of an inch or so, opposite, and very icnlike.
The one is stout, undivided, incurved, sharply toothed
on the outside ; the other opposite, slender, much
shorter, pinnately and widely divided. The latter is
seen to lie almost hidden out of sight, under the over-
arching pinnule which grows next below it. For,
it will be observed that, the two forms alternate with
250 SRA AfOSSBS.
each other quite regularly, on both sides of the
plant.
This species is a much more robust plant than
either of the other California PtilotcE, thicker and
denser, every way in appearance. That fact will com-
monly serve to distinguish it from them. But there
are other points which help the discrimination, viz. :
the ultimate si7nple pinnule of this species is sabre-
shaped, arched or incurved, and toothed on the outer
edge only ; while theirs is relatively smaller, straighter
slenderer, more club-shaped, and in Pt. hypnoides,
not toothed, while in Ft. asphnoides it is commonly
toothed on both sides.
It grows in deep water. Mr. Cleveland gets it
from January to April, not very common at San
Diego. Dr. Anderson reports it not very common,
on the beach, at Santa Cruz, all the year round. Mrs.
Bingham says it is rare at Santa Barbara; she finds
it, in February, washed ashore from deep water.
Ptilota hypnoides, Harv.
I have plants of this species quite two feet long.
It greatly resembles Pt. densa in its general habit
of growth. It has a prominent leading stem, flattened,
branching irregularly along either edge, with long,
widely spreading branches. These also are beset by
RED ALG^E. 251
shorter secondary branches in the same manner, so
that the whole plant lies in one plane. The secondary
branches bear the pinnae. These are opposite and
unlike.
They consist of a prominent, somewhat bent,
thick, club-shaped, obtuse, untoothed ramulus, one-
tenth of an inch long, set opposite a smaller pinnately
divided pinnule. The smaller divisions of this pinnule
seem to be in form like the large, undivided ramulus,
which is placed opposite to it on the plant. The
divided pinnules seem to be quite insignificant,
and are often almost suppressed between the stout,
self asserting ramuli by their side.
It does not adhere to paper very well. In color
it is a reddish purple, fading to green or a dirty
white, older parts often almost black. Mr. Cleveland
says it is a rare plant at San Diego, cast up from
deep water, from November to April. Mrs. Bingham
reports it not very common at Santa Barbara, in
May, and June. But Dr. Anderson fmds it common
at Santa Cruz. It evidently loves a northern climate.
PriLOTA ASPLENOIDES, Ag.
This is a still more distinctly northern plant than
the last. It is reported in California, only at Santa
Cruz, and there as scarce. It is a verv much slen-
252 SEA MOSSES.
derer plant than the last, though growing to the
height of eighteen inches. The frond is compressed
or flat ; one-tenth of an inch wide, of uniform breadth,
with a leading stem, and branches and pinnae on
both edges ; the axils of primary and secondary
branches narrow, while the pinnae are set almost a»
right angles to the axis of the branch. They are
opposite and unlike.
The larger pinna or ramulus is undivided, one-
eighth of an inch long, or less, deeply and sharply
toothed on both edges, widened in the middle, and
pointed at both ends. The opposite pinna is either
reduced to a minute spine or pinnately divided, but
always much less prominent than the ramulus, which
sets opposite to it. The color is a light or reddish
brown. It does not adhere to paper.
Genus — GLOIOSIPHONIA* Carm,
Gloiosiphonia capillaris, Carm.
This is often spoken of as a rare plant, but 1
have found it so common in the rock pools about
Marblehead, that I can hardly think of it as rare
♦ Gloiosiphonia s: A viscid tube.
RED ALG^^. 253
or even scarce. It is said to be found in Long
Island Sound, but where, or in what part of it, or
the adjacent waters, I am not able to say. It
more properly belongs to our northern waters, and
from various points there, it is reported. Mr. Collins
finds it at Revere, in tide pools, in June. Mrs. Bray
finds it in deep water at Magnolia; and Mrs. Davis
collects it from May to July, at the same place, on
rocks partly covered by sand.
It grows six or eight inches high; the main stem
cylindrical, as large as wrapping- twine ; sometimes
solitary, but commonly in tufts. It is much con-
stricted at the base, and attenuated at the top, as
are also all the branches and the ramuli. It has a
leading stem, which, at the height of an inch or
more from the base, begins to be clothed with short,
widely-spreading, almost horizontal branches. In a
plant six inches high, some of them exceed an
inch in length. They are inserted all around, and
somewhat evenly distributed along the main stem.
They branch in the same way, and the secondary
branches are also beset with ramuli, arranged on the
same plan. All the parts are much constricted at
the base, and attenuated at the top.
The substance of the frond is soft, or tender-
and juicy, and a little elastic, shrinking much in
254 SEA MOSSES.
drying. It adheres firmly to paper, and should not
be subject to much pressure, at first, in drying. The
color of the younger plants is a brilHant carmine ;
older ones, darker. It should be looked for early in
the season, though I have collected it to the end
of August,
Geuus.— GRIFFITBSIA* Ag.
Griffithsia Bornetiana, Farlow.
This is the only representative yet found on oui
eastern shores of this large and brilliant genus. It
is called G. coraliina, var. globifera, in Harvey's
" Nereis.^' But a more careful and extensive study
of it, by Dr. Farlow, has convinced him that it is
quite a distinct species, and he has named it for a
celebrated French Algologist, Prof. Ed. Bornet.
This plant has a delicate, slender, filiform frond,
consisting of a single series of naked, pink cells,
placed end to end. It branches by regular forkings,
and the branches are composed the same as the stem
of a series of single cells. The forking is accom-
plished by two cells, starting from the top of one.
The branches repeatedly fork in the same way, nar-
*Ciiffithsia. Named for Mrs. Griffith, a celebrated English Algologist.
RED ALG^S. 255
rowly, till it comes about that there is quite a bushy,
fan-shaped, level-topped plant, all derived from the
simple beginning of a slender, single-celled thread.
It grows on Zostera, and other plants below tide
marks. It has a beautiful rosy color, is very soft
and fragile, and adheres firmly to paper. In mount-
ing, it should not at first be put under much pres-
sure ; nor should it be "floated" in fresh water,
else it will discharge its pink color. Miss Booth
finds it in abundance at Orient, in July and August.
It will be found on most shores south of Cape Cod.
If it occurs at all in the waters of Massachusetts
Bay, it must be as a great rarity, for neither my
correspondents nor myself have ever found it there.
Giex\yxs.— CALLITB AMNION* Lyngo.
This is a large genus, of very beautiful plants,
numbering over twenty species in our flora. In
structure, they are the simplest of the red Algae, and
have what is deemed to be the most primitive method
of reproduction. The frond consists of a series of
single cells, put end to end, stem and branches
being alike in this regard. In some species, however,
* Callithamnion = A beautiful shrub.
256 SEA MOSSES.
the main stem is more or less coated towards the
base, by a covering of small cells.
It comes within the purpose of this book to
direct attention only to those few species, which are
specially notable for their beauty, their plentifulness,
or their wide distribution. Standing at the head of
the list, of our Atlantic Callithaninia^ in respect to
beauty, if not at the head of the genus itself in
that regard, is
Callithamnion Americanum, Harv.
This plant grows not uncommon along the whole
coast, from Halifax to New York. In the warmer
waters, south of Cape Cod, it seems to be of a
finer and more delicate habit, as well, also, as of a
more brilliant rose-red color, than in the north. It
is among the earliest plants to be found. I have
most exquisite specimens, collected by my friend, A.
R. Young, about New York, as early as March 12th.
And he assures me that he has found it in fine de-
velopment among the ice, on Washington's Birthday.
In Plate XX., the artist has reproduced, with
great faithfulness and spirit, one of the plants ot
this species, with which Mr. Young has enriched my
collection. It will convey some hint, I hope, of the
beauty of thi§ wonderful plant. But I believe a
RED ALGyE. 257
somewhat detailed description will not be quite su-
perfluous.
The frond is of cobweb fineness ; about three or
four inches high, densely tufted, much and finely
branched ; the primary branches long ; the secondary
alternate and decompound, all rather widely spread-
ing ; somewhat far asunder at the base ; more closely
crowded toward the top. A marked characteristic
of this and the next species is the presence, along
all the branches, primary and secondary, springing
from the top of each joint, of a pair of much-
divided ramuli, one-tenth of an inch long or more,
standing out widely from the branches.
They are easily seen with the naked eye, and
under a glass appear to be divided into long and
extremely fine branches. The joints of these fine
divisions of the ramuli are eight or ten times longer
than broad. This will serve lo distinguish them from
the ramuli of the next species, the joints of which
are short and stout. It grows in deep water ^ on
jhells, stones and rocks. Mr. Collins has collected it
as late as June, at Revere, and Mrs. Davis reports
it very plentiful, in the spring, at Gloucester.
Callithamnion Pylais^i, Mont.
In many respects, this is closely related to the
»7
258 SEA MOSSES.
last species. Indeed, you will find plants, which,
though easily distinguished from the extreme forms
of either species, are very difficult to locate, and
you will often find it no easy matter to determine
to which species you will refer them.
But, in a general way, it may be said that this
species is coarser than the last. Its main branches
are thicker, and its secondary and further ramifica-
tions shorter. There are also particular distinguishing
marks. The ramuli of this species spring from Jiisi
below the top of the joint ; they divide by opposite
branching; they are much stouter and shorter than
the ramuH of the other species, and the cells of
these ramuU are much shorter, being not more than ,
twice as long as wide.
The color, also, of this species is considerably
darker than in C. A?nericanum. The plant grows to
the height of three or four inches, is four or five
times alternately decompounded, the branches remote
towards the base, crowded at the top. It is a spring
plant, growing in deep water, the same as C. Amer-
icanmn, and has nearly the same geographical range,
with a tendency to favor the northern localities.
Mr. Collins finds it at Revere, from March to
May, not very common. Mrs. Bray reports it very
common at Magnolia, during the same months. Mrs,
RED ALGyE. 259
Davis finds it in Gloucester, as late as July. And
Miss Booth, in August, at Peconic Bay, and Prof.
Eaton, in Eastport, Maine, in August and September.
Callithamnion floccosum, Ag.
This species is reported only in our northern
waters, from Boston Bay northward. It is a very
slender, remotely, much branclied plant, very flaccid,
and from four to six inches high. At the base, the
branches are half an inch apart, but more crowded
towards the top. This fact, together with the flaccid
nature of the frond, makes the ramuli gather in floc-
culent masses at the ends of the secondary branches.
This gives the plant a very uneven appearance.
The main stems of the tuft are most frequently
twisted together into a little rope. The tops of the
cells in the branches and branchlets just below
where they join the cell above, are armed with a
single pah' of opposite ramuli. These are from one-
twentieth to one-tenth of an inch long, simple or
unbranched, spine-like, slender and sharp. This fact
very readily distinguishes this species from either of
the foregoing, whose ramuli are much branched.
Several marks distinguish it from the next species,
C. cruciatum, viz. : its larger size ; its different geo-
^aphical habitat ; and the fact of its having but a
900 SEA MOSSES.
single pair of ramuli, at each joint, while C. cm-
datum, frequently has two. The color of this species
is like that of C. Pylaiscei, a bright red.
Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Bray find it in abundance at
Niles Beach, Magnolia, during April and May. Profs.
Verrill and Eaton found it common, growing on
Ptilota plumosa, at Dog Island, Maine, and on mussel
shells among the wharves at Eastport, during August
and September.
Callithamnion cruciatum, Ag.
This species grows only on the south side of
Cape Cod, and is certainly somewhat scarce. It
grows in deep water, on muddy rocks, in globose
tufts, an inch or more high, of a bright red color;
filaments, like most of the genus, very slender. The
frond divides or forks not widely, the lower divi-
sions are far apart, the upper close together. The
branches themselves fork one or more times.
The ramuli, which are set in one or two pairs upon
the upper end of each of the cells in the filaments,
are mostly long and branched, one-twelfth of an inch
long. They stand out almost perpendicular to the
the axis of the filament.
The one point which distinguishes the mounted
plant so that it can hardly fail of easy recognition, is
RED ALGyS. 261
the fact that at the end of every branch the ramuH
crowd together and make a little dense or thickened
mass, giving the branch an appearance not unlike that
of a minute peacock's feather, — the pinnae standing
a little apart all along the rachis, and then gathering
close about the end, form the well-known " eye " of
the miniature feather. There is certainly something
like this in a well-mounted specimen of C. cruciatum.
It is a summer plant. Miss Booth reports it not
common in August, at Orient. I have never col-
lected it.
Callithamnion Baileyi, Harv.
This plant, which is certainly very common all
through the waters of southern New England and New
York, is by no means rare in Massachusetts Bay. It
)S a well marked species, and cannot easily be con-
f:)unded with any other CallitJiamnion of our coast.
\X will usually be found two, or at most, three inches
high, and of a pyramidal outline.
It has a stout stem, larger than a bristle, which
runs quite through the plant to the top. From all
sides of this there spreads out widely, a series of stout
branches, longest at the base of the plant, but getting
rapidly shorter as we approach the top. This gives
the plant its pyramidal form. If separate branches are
262 SEA MOSSES.
now examined, it will be found that they repeat the
habit of the whole plant, sending out branchlets all
about, which are longer towards the lower part of the
branch, and shorter upwards.
This gives every main branch a sharply pointed
outline. These points thrust themselves out beyond
the principal mass of the frond in a very characteristic
way. So marked ' is this feature, that it constitutes
the one easily recognized sign, when taken in con-
nection with the robust stem and main branches, by
which to know the species. Though the stem and
branches are so stout, for a Callithamnion, the ultimate
ramuli are very fine, short, and much alternately
divided.
The color is a fine dark red. Mr. Collins found
it at Revere, growing on Zostera, in September. I
have found it in abundance, all through the season,
on the south coast of New England, but strange
to say, during several seasons of diligent collecting,
have never found it at Marblehead. Miss Booth
collects it at Orient, L. I., washed ashore from deep
water.
There is no reason to regret that Professor Bailey's
name and memory have been preserved in so charm-
ing, and so well characterized a species, as is this
" beautiful Httle shrub."
RED ALGM. 263
Callithamnion Borreri, Ag.
This, and the two following species, may not be so
easily made out, and distinguished from each other at
first, as those already described. Yet, when they are
once known, the distinguishing points will be easily
recognized. The geographical range of this species,
on our coast, is limited to the waters on the south
shores of New England and New York.
It grows in dense, soft tufts, two or three inches
high. The frond is of capillary fineness, the branches
long and widely spreading, the lower half of the
branches mostly bare, the upper half divided and
subdivided, alternately, many times, the ultimate branch-
lets being long and slender, and not unfrequently
turned back in graceful curves. The little plumes
which the ultimate branchlets form, are made by
arranging the ramuli on the two sides of the branch,
like the pinnae of a fern along its rachis or stalk.
The color is a fine, briUiant red. I have collected
it in summer and late fall, at Newport and Wood's
Holl. Miss Booth found it not very plenty at Orient
in August, washed ashore from deep water.
Callithamnion eyssoides, Arn.
Beginners will more easily confound this species
with the last, than with any other, and yet it differs
2G4 5^.4 MOSSSS.
from it in several well marked particulars. It is
much finer in all its parts, and shows to the naked
eye no main stem and branches, which are much
thicker than the ultimate ramifications. To be sure,
the general habit of the plant and the method of
branching is much the same as that of C. Barren',
but the ultimate ramuli are no more than half as long,
or as thick. Indeed, the whole plant is almost as
fine as a spider's thread.
The color is a less brilliant red than that of C.
Barren, and approaches much nearer that of C,
carymbasum, a dark or brownish red. But it will
not be confounded with the latter, for that is a coarser
plant even than C. Barren.
The plant grows to the height of two or three
inches, in dense tufts. As above indicated, it is ex-
cessively fine and flaccid, collapsing into a clot when
drawn from the water. No leading stem or branches
will be easily detected in the mounted plant, without
the aid of a glass. But the various directions which
the main branches take will be easily seen by the
finely pinnated ends, which they put out beyond the
principal *mass of the frond, forming beautiful little
plumules, or the tops of pyramids.
It grows during the summer upon Zoster a ^ and
other sub-marine plants and rocks, below low-tide.
RED ALGM. 265
It may be looked for along the coast, from New
York- to Massachusetts Bay, though I have collected
it only at Wood's Roll and New York Bay. I have
specimens from Narragansett Pier. It is not a very
common plant, though Harvey says it may be found
in several places in New York Harbor, from Hell
Gate to Fort Hamilton.
Callithamnion versicolor, Ag.
This beautiful little Callithamnion, represented in
Fig. I, Plate XVIIL, has all the delicate and cobweb
fineness of filament which characterizes the last
species. But it may be easily distinguished from
that and every other species of Callithamnion, by
the peculiarity which its name indicates, viz.: its
striking and beautiful diversity of color. Some parts
of the frond will be a brilliant rosy red, while others
are an equally brilliant, full green. Sometimes a
branch will begin a red and end a green, or a
brown, or a yellow. Again, some one of the second-
ary branches on a primary will be all red, and an-
other just by the side of it, will be a green or a
yellow, and so on. Sometimes fully half a dozen
different colors or shades will appear in the same
frond, and I have them where the whole plant is as
brilliant a green as an Ulva or an Enteromorpha.
266 SEA MOSSES
This plant grows from one to three inches high.
It has a somewhat robust leading stem with several
stout primary branches, differing in this respect from
C. byssoides, but the final branchlets and ramuli are
extremely fine and delicate, and somewhat long.
A variety of this species, seirospermum, differs
from the typical form by being a trifle stouter and
coarser, with the ultimate ramuli not so abundant or
so long and silky. It has, however, much the same
habit of growth, and with the aid of a good lens,
may be determined without difficulty, when in fruit,
by the singular strings of bead-like spores which it
produces in the place of the common, asexual tetra-
spores. The tetraspores of this genus grow externally
up the ultimate ramuli.
This species is reported from New York north-
ward, but it cannot be common in northern waters,
for none of my correspondents have found it in that
region. But it is not very rare south of Cape Cod.
I have taken numbers of plants, var. seirospermum,
at Wood's Holl, in July. Miss Booth gathered the
same at Orient, in July. I have a number of ex-
quisite plants of the normal form, sent to me by
Mrs. Woodward, from Cottage City, Martha's Vine-
yard. I understand them to be winter plants. One
of them is represented in Plate XVIII.
RED ALG.E. 267
CaLLITH AMNION CORYMBOSUM, Ag.
There are very very few more beautiful plants in
the sea than this. Carefully laid out, each separate
plant upon a paper by itself, it may well claim to
rival almost any other for gracefulness of outline,
regularity and beauty of branching, and fineness and
delicacy of filament.
It grows upon Zostera, and upon the mud-covered
rocks, and piles about the docks, and along the
shores, below tide, in litde globose tufts, one to two
and one-half inches high. Each separate plant in
the tuft grows from a minute disk, with a single
main stem not much thicker than a hair. This
throws out widely, long branches from every side.
These branches are bare at the base, but soon branch
in the same manner as the main stem, with second-
ary branches, which are also bare at the base, and
rapidly divide and sub-divide towards the top.
The ultimate ramuli are very fine and level-
topped, so as to make a great number of minute
corymbs at the extremity of the branches, hence
the name of the species. The general aspect of the
plant is that of a miniature, bushy, very symmetri-
cal shrub, the pyramidal outline of the end of the
branches appearing beyond the general mass. Fig. i,
Plate XIX., gives a very excellent representation of it.
268 SEA MOSSES.
In the water, it is often a deep, rich red, but
when on paper the red has a marked brown shade.
It is common along the whole coast from New York
northward, from June to November. I have collected
it in abundance on Zostera, in Marblehead Harbor,
in August, and on the piers at Wood's Holl, the very
last days of October. Mr. Collins has found it in
November, at Nahant.
Callithamnion Dasyoides, Ag.
This and the following species are all that I shall
undertake to describe of the CalUthannia of California.
This plant is more robust than any of the genus grow-
ing in the Atlantic waters. It attains a height of four
inches or more. Its main stem is twice as thick as
a bristle, regularly and alternately branched along
its opposite sides.
These branches are of irregular length. Some
of them as long as the main stem. Some half, and
some a quarter as long. The primary branches also
branch along the two sides in the same plane and in
the same manner as the main stem. Likewise the
secondary and tertiary branchlets sometimes, so that
the plant becomes pinnately decompounded three or
four times, the ultimate ramuli being very fine, and
sometimes long.
RED ALGA^:. 269
It is scarce at Santa Barbara, from January to
,\ugust, on the beach, growing parasitical on Micro-
:ladia and Cerajnium riihruni. It is not uncommon
„it Santa Cruz all the season, parasitical on Ptilota
lensd. It adheres well to paper, and the younger
fUid smaller plants are certainly very beautiful, and
well worth looking for. The color in them is a deep,
rich red, of a darker shade in the older plants. I
suppose it may be expected in greater abundance
farther north. It is no doubt often collected at the
Golden Gate
Callithamnion heteromorphum, Ag.
This is by far the most beautiful of the California
Callithamnia. It is represented in Figure 2, Plate
XVIII. It has a leading stem which extends through
the whole plant, giving off alternate branches from two
opposite sides at regular intervals. These branches
shorten towards base and apex from the middle, where,
in a plant two inches high, they are half an inch long,
This gives the frond a very perfect lanceolate outline.
From the primary, spring secondary branches in the
same way, which divide alternately towards the top,
in very short branchlets.
The peculiar mark of the species is the little circlet
of delicate plumes which adorns the top of every
joint, in the stem and branches, from the base to the
270 SEA MOSSES.
end of the remotest divisions. Except on the main
stem these plumes are scarcely discernible separately
to the naked eye. But under a pocket lens they are
easily seen, and it is these which give the plant its
delicate, feathery appearance. This is a somewhat
rare plant, though it is reported along the whole
California coast, growing at all seasons, upon other
Algae, in pools or below tide. It is certainly well
worth a long and laborious search, to fill one's hands
with the fronds of this wonderful little beauty.
Thus ends our brief, and as it seems to me,
altogether inadequate survey, of the " Sea Mosses,"
of our two far-parted shores. I may be permitted
to hope, perhaps, that even the imperfect acquaintance
which this little book shall give its readers, with these
lower forms of Ocean Life, may teach, at least, the one
lesson of patience and trust towards God, which the
Poet learned from them, long years ago.
SEA WEED.
Not always unimpeded can I pray,
Nor, pitying saint, thine intercession claim;
Too closely clings the burden of the day,
And all the mint and anise that I pay
But swells my debt and deepens my self-blame
RED ALG^. 27)
Shall I less patience have, than Thou, who know
That Thou revisit'st all who wait for Thee,
Nor only ftll'st the unsounded deeps below.
But dost refresh with punatual overflow
The rifts where unregarded mosses be?
The drooping sea weed hears, in night abyss»d.
Far and more far the wave's receding shocks.
Nor doubts, for all the darkness and the mist,
That the pale shepherdess will keep her tryst,
And shore-ward lead again her foam-fleeced flocks.
For the same wave that rims the Carib shore
With momentary brede of pearl and gold,
Goes hurrying thence to gladden with its roar
Lorn weeds bound fast on rocks of Labrador
By love divine on one sweet errand rolled.
And, though Thy healing waters far withdraw,
I, too, can wait and feed on hope of Thee
And of the dear recurrence of Thy law,
Sure that the parting grace that morning saw
Abides its time to come in search of me.
J. R. Lowell
A SEA VIEW.
I climbed the sea-worn cliffs that edged the shore,
And looking downward watched the breakers curl
Around the rocks, and marked their mighty swirl
Quiver through swaying sea weed dark and hoar.
Eastward the white caps rose with far-off roar,
Against a sky like red and purple pearl,
Then hollowed greenly in, and rushed to hurl
Their weight of water at the cliffs before.
Only a sea-gull flying silently,
And one soft rosy sail were now in sight, —
A sail the sunset touched right tenderly,
And flushed with dreamy glory faintly bright.
Then fain would I have crossed the tossing sea.
Fain dared the storm to float within that light.
Alice Osbornt,
GLOSSARY.
Alga,
Plural
Alg^..
Articulated.
Axil.
Axis.
Capillary.
Cartilaginous.
Cilia.
Chlorophyl.
Club-shaped.
Compressed.
Conceptacle.
Coriaceous.
Corymb.
( Cryptogamic plants which grow in the
J water.
Jointed.
^The angle, on the upper side, between
} the branch and the stem, or be-
C tween two branches.
r The central line, or direction, of the
( main body of the plant.
Hair-like, in size and shape.
Firm and tough, in texture.
Short, slender processes, like eye-lashes.
The green cell contents.
Tapering below, blunt above,
r Flattened on opposite sides ; parts
1 commonly quite narrow in Algae.
{The vessel which contains the true
fruit, in the Red Algae.
Leathery, tough.
/ A sort of flat or convex flower cluster ;
imitated in some Algae by the ultimate
ramuli at the ends of the branchlets.
274
SBA MOSSES,
Cryptogam.
Cylindrical
Filiform.
Flora.
Frond.
Gelatinous.
Habitat.
I
I
Hold-fast. ^
I
Ianceolate
or
Lance-shaped.
Lateral.
Lobe.
Membraneous.
A flowerless plant,
r Formed like stems generally, round,
i and tapering if at all, very slightly.
{ Thread-shaped, long, slender and
( cylindrical.
f The plants of a district, or country,
( taken together.
The whole body of the Alga, main
stem, branches and ramuli, all taken
together.
Jelly-like.
The place of growth of a plant.
The part of an Alga, which answers
to the root of other plants, that by
which it is attached to whatever it
grows upon; it may be a mass ol
root-fibres, or a thin, disk-like expan-
sion of the substance of the frond.
/ Leaflets several times longer than wide,
\ tapering upwards, or both upwards
'^ and downwards.
From the side.
A segment of a membraneous frond.
Thin, more or less translucent, like
a membrane.
GLOSSARr.
275
Midrib.
Palmate.
Petiole.
Papilla,
Plural
Papille.
Pinna,
Plural
PlNN^.
Pinnule,
Plural
Pinnule.
Pinnate.
Rachis.
Ramulus,
Plural
Ramuli.
(
A large vein, or continuation of the
stalk, running through the middle ot
some flattened or membraneous fronds
f Shaped like the hand, with the fin-
( gers extended.
A leaf- stalk.
Little nipple-shaped protuberances.
C Primary leaflets or branchlets of a
y pinnate frond.
Secondary, or still smaller leaflets oi
branchlets of a pinnate frond, grow-
ing on the pinnae.
Where the secondary parts are ar-
ranged along the sides of their
primaries, in same regular order, op-
posite or alternate, like leaflets
along the sides of a common petiole.
That portion of the stem, along which
the branches are arranged like ribs
along a backbone.
The smaller branches, or branchlets.
276
RED ALG^.
segments.
Serrated.
bINUOUS.
Spindle-shaped,
Spines.
Spores.
Tetraspores,
or
Tetragonidia.
Top- shaped.
Tubercle.
Veins.
Vesicle.
Whorl.
Divisions of the fronds.
Toothed like a saw.
r The margin crooked, bending in and
I out.
r Tapering to each end from a thick-
^ ened middle.
Small, thorn-like processes,
f The seeds of the Algae, and other
I Cryptogamic plants.
The asexual spores of the Red Algae,
usually arranged in groups of fours.
Like a top, or a cone with the apex
downwards.
A small excrescence.
Small, linear thickenings of the frond,
which resemble the veinings, or
framework of the leaves of trees.
A bladder.
Ramuli arranged in a circle around
the stem or branches.
-^— ... <^
INDEX OF GENERA AND SPECIES,
PAGE
/^GARUM 99
Turner! 99
Ahnfeltia 212
gigartinoides 214
plicata 212
Alaria 90
esculenta 90
ASPEROCOCCUS lOI
echinatus loi
sinuosus 102
gRYOPSIS 47
plumosa 4S
Qalliblepharis 180
ciliata 180
Callithamnion 255
Americanum 256
Baileyi 261
Borreri 263
byssoides 263
corymbosum 2-67
cruciatum 260
Dasyoides 268
floccosum 259
PAG«
heteromorphum 269
PylaisjEi 257
versicolor 265
C ALLOPHYLLIS 2x6
flabellulata 218
furcata 217
variegata 216
Castagnea 107
virescens 108
Zosterae 107
Ceramium 239
Deslongchampsii 242
fastigiatum 244
rubrum 240
strictum 243
Chjetomorpha 64
serea 64
melagonium 64
Olneyi 65
Picquotiana 65
tortuosa • • 66
Champia 198
parvula 198
Chondkiopsis 161
278
INDEX.
PAGE
dasjphylla 164
nidilica 165
striolata 163
tenuissima 162
Chondrus 226
crispus 226
Chorda 103
filum 103
Chordaria 104
abietina 106
divaricata 105
flagelliformis , 104
Chylocladia 167
ovalis 168
Cladophora 57
arcta 58
cartilaginea 60
flexuosa 63
glaucescens 62
gracilis 61
laetevirens 63
refracta 61
rupestris 59
uncialis 59
Cladostephus TIO
spongiosus 112
verticillatus no
Corallina iS^
officinalis 184
PAGE
Cystoclonium 214
purpurascens 214
]])asya 138
elegans 138
Delesseria 170
alata 172
sinuosa ; 170
Desmarestia 117
aculeata 118
latifrons 120
ligulata 119
virMis.. 117
DiCTYONEURON 92
Californicum 92
DiCTYOSIPHON 116
foeniculaceus 1 16
gCTOCARPUS 112
Farlowii 114
firmus 113
sJ4iculosus 114
tomentosus «•• 115
viridis 115
El ACHISTA 1 10
fucicola 1 10
Enteromorpha 49
clathrata 51
compressa 5°
INDEX.
279
PAGB
intestinalis 50
EuTHORA 192
cristata 192
pARLOWIA 196
compressa 196
Fucus 78
fastigiatus 78
furcfttus 81
nodosus 80
vesiculosus 79
QiGARTINA 219
canaliculata 224
mamillosa 220
microphylla 223
radula 221
spinosa 222
Gelidium 185
cartilagineum 186
corneum i8j
Coulteri 187
Gloiosiphonia 252
capillaris 252
Gracilaria 182
multipartita 181
Grateloupia 231
Cutlerise 231
Griffithsia 254
Bornetiana 254
PAGE
Grinnellia 168
Americana 168
Gymnogongrus .. 209
Griffithsioe 211
leptophyllus 210
linearis 211
Norvegicus 209
^ALIDRYS 77
osmundacea 77
Halosaccion 233
ramentaceiim 233
Hypnea 188
musciformis 188
Jrid^a 227
laminarioides 227
Laminaria 93
Andersonii 98
flexicaulis 97
longicruris 96
saccarhina 94
Laurencia 165
pinnatifida 166
virgata 167
Leathesia 109
tuberformis 109
Lomentaria 199
Baileyana 199
280
INDEX.
FAGB
|y[ACROCYS TIS 82
pji ifera 82
Microcardia 236
Borealis 238
Californica 238
Coulten 236
NJemalion 204
multifidum 204
Nereocystis 84
Liitkeana 84
NiTOPHYLLUM I74
Andersonii 177
flabelligerum 1 79
Fryeanum 176
latissimum 175
Ruprechteanum 178
spectabile 174
violaceum 180
Phyllitis 123
fascia 123
Phyllophora 207
Brodisei 208
membranifoHa 208
Phyllospora 76
Menziesii 76
PiKEA 195
Californica 195
Plocamium 193
PAGE
coccmeum... 193
POLYIDES 203
rotundus , 203
POLYSIPHONIA 14a
Baileyl 152
elongata 146
fastigiata 141
fibrillosa 149
Harveyi 143
nigrescens 151
Olneyi 144
parasitica 154
urceolata 141
variegata 145
viola<:ea 148
Woodii 156
PORPHYRA 55
vulgaris 55
POSTELSIA 87
palmaeformis 87
Prionitis 228
Andersonii 229
lanceolata 228
Pterygophora 88
Californica 86
Ptilota 246
asplenoides 251
densa 249
elegans 248
INDEX.
281
PAGB
hypnoides 250
plumosa 246
PuNCTARi A 121
latifolia 121
plantaginea 122
J^H ABDONIA 201
Coulter! 20G
tenera 201
Rhodomela 157
floccosa 160
larix 159
subfusca.. 157
Rhodymenia 1S9
corallina 191
palmata iS^
gARCOPHYLLIS 230
Californica 230
PAGE
Sargassum 74
vulgare 74
Scinaia 206
furcellata 206
ScYTOSiPHON 123
lomentarius • 123
-Spyridia 234
filamentosa 234
Stenogramma 194
interrupta 194
Stilophora ICX)
rhizodes 100
U^VA 52
fasciata 54
iactuca 54
latissima 52
^ONARIA
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