PLANTS OF SANDY SHORES. ol 
Seaweeds are green, brown, or red, the colour being in harmony 
with the amount of sunlight to which they are exposed. The green 
plants occur in the shallowest water, where they are left high and 
dry for some hours at a time; the brown are found in shallow 
rock-pools near low-water mark and on rocks exposed at low tide ; 
and the red have their homes in deep pools, or far down in 
still water, as in the Otago fiords. Seaweeds, although apparently 
exposed to uniform conditions when growing side by side, are of 
many most distinct forms. Codiwm adhaerens forms thick, fleshy, 
dark-green masses on stones in rock-pools; Chaetomorpha Darwinii 
consists of beautiful translucent strings of green beads; Hormosira 
Banksii covers rocks with its large, brown, wrinkled, bead - like 
masses. The red seaweeds differ greatly in their texture, those in 
the deepest water being exceedingly fragile. 
Although they are not seaweeds but true seed-plants, the sea- 
grasses (Zostera nana and Z. tasmanica) may receive mention here. 
Zostera nana is extremely common in shallow estuaries, and covers 
the muddy floor with its flat grass-like leaves for many square yards 
at a time. 
Sandy shores are common enough on the New Zealand coast ; 
and as these, when sufficiently firm, are patronized as playgrounds 
for our children and ourselves, something as to their plants may be 
of interest. Such a shore may sometimes be quite without plants, 
except for the remains of seaweeds which mark the high-tide limit. 
Where the shore is sheltered, the sand-convolvulus (Calystegia Sol- 
danella) (fig. 17), with its whitish flowers striped with lilac, and 
kidney-shaped or heart-shaped fleshy green leaves, is often present. 
Here, too, is the home of the shore-buttercup (Ranunculus acaulis), 
its leaves of three small succulent leaflets flat on the sand, and its 
little yellow flower buried right up to its neck. As the seeds ripen, 
this plant has the curious property of bending its flower-stem into 
the sand and thus sowing its own crop. The New Zealand spinach 
(Letragonia expansa), the succulent New Zealand orache (Atriplex 
Billardiert), and the prickly saltwort (Salsola Kali) are also plants 
of the shore, but the latter is perhaps not indigenous. 
Gravelly and rocky shores are richer in plant-life than sandy 
ones, since, for one thing, they are much more stable. On them, 
especially in Southland and Stewart Island, the shore-dock (Rumex 
neglectus) is common. This has a rather stout creeping stem, which 
