FOREWORD 



HE most recent comprehensive monograph of the marine 

 algae of the combined Atlantic and Pacific coasts of 

 the United States is d splendid one, printed in quarto 

 and with some of the finest colored plates in the liter- 

 ature. The work is the more impressive when one 

 realizes that the author, W. H. Harvey, did his field 

 work without the aid of an automobile or a motor driven boat, made 

 his microscopic examinations without the aid of an electric light, and 

 made his own drawings on lithographic limestone. The time, — a cen- 

 tury ago. From the four hundred odd kinds of algae enumerated by 

 Harvey from the American shores the number of known species has 

 grown to about two thousand, with many still to be recognized and 

 named. Yet, with all of this expansion of knowledge there has come 

 no single modern monograph treating the North American seaweeds. 

 More conspicuous to many is the lack of any handbook designed to 

 aid, the amateur and the elementary student in identifying the com- 

 moner kinds of marine algae. It is toward filling a part of this need 

 that this little book is offered. 



Inasmuch as the coasts of the United States are so very extensive 

 and the range of habitats and climates so varied, both on the Atlantic 

 and Pacific sides of the continent, a treatment of all of the species of 

 seaweeds in a small volume is impossible. Space does not permit 

 even a representative illustration for each of the many genera. How- 

 ever, our purpose is to provide a useful tool for the elementary stu- 

 dent of phycology, and with his needs in mind a selection has been 

 made of those plants which he is most likely to encounter wherever 

 he may be along the coasts of the United States. Algae which are 

 very small, or are of rare or localized occurrence, are omitted. Like- 

 wise, in the preparation of the key an effort has been made to present 

 those features which apply to the mature, well developed plants rather 

 than to juvenile or stunted forms which are not characteristic. 



The author does not expect that the student will be completely 

 satisfied with the treatment, for occasionally there will be times when 

 the plant at hand is not to be found in this book, or when the illustra- 

 tion does not look very much like a particular specimen brought in 

 for study. On the other hand he does hope that this handbook will 

 serve the student in a large majority of cases to determine the names 

 of the seaweeds he has collected, wherever he lives or travels along 

 American Shores. 



With few exceptions the illustrations have been drawn by the author 

 from actual specimens. The preparation of these was greatly facili- 



