124 Rhodora : [JuLy 
species of Polysiphonia growing in great quantity and size in summer. 
The woodwork of the wharves from low water-mark down is often very 
rich in species and individuals. Harbors like those of Bridgeport and 
New Haven are excellent hunting grounds ; if the former city seems to 
have the richest flora of all Long Island Sound, it is probably only that 
it has been so thoroughly studied. Between Bridgeport and New 
Haven, at Woodmont, is a small rocky ledge, the only point for many 
miles where collecting in rocky tide pools is practicable. 
Though the sandy or gravelly shore continues practically to Bos- 
ton on the mainland, the island of Rhode Island gives us very different 
conditions. Bold or overhanging rocks rise from the sea level, often 
with a sort of terrace at the base, covered at high water, but easily 
accessible at low tide, and with innumerable rock pools. Newport is 
perhaps the best collecting ground of all our coast ; it has the warm- 
water flora of southern New England, with every variety of station; 
salt marsh, lagoon, sandy beach, boulders, steep cliffs, and tide pools 
at all levels. At the same time there is such an exposure to the full 
force of the open sea, that even such northern forms as Laminaria 
longicruris and Alaria esculenta occasionally are found. 
For plants washed ashore, Bathing Beach and Second Beach are 
excellent localities, and on the island of Conanicut, Mackerel Cove. 
The tide pools at Sachuest and Easton's Points, below the Cliff Walk, 
and from there round to the South Shore, give good results; but per- 
haps the best pools of all are at Beaver Tail, at the south end of 
Conanicut. It would be hard to imagine a more beautiful sight than 
the acres of pools here in April and May, with the delicate green 
Monostroma pulchrum, the rich red Glotosiphonia capillaris, the pale 
olive fronds of young Zaminaria, and the iridescent Chondrus. As 
the season goes on other species take the places of these, but the rich 
display continues. 
Vineyard Sound is in many ways like Long Island Sound, but a 
number of new species appear. At Gay Head there is almost always a 
sea on, and interesting deep-water plants are washed up. Wood’s 
Hole has long been a centre of exploration, but probably is no richer 
than the Vineyard shore, especially Edgartown harbor, which is good 
collecting ground at all seasons of the year. The outside of Cape Cod, 
owing to the shifting sands, is quite barren; the shallow water inside 
is like Long Island Sound; at Cohasset begins the rocky coast that 
stretches, with little break, to New Brunswick. In the warm bays at 
