NOSTOCHINE^E. 273 



and satisfactory, and corroborative of Ehrenberg's account, 

 that its introduction cannot but be approved of. It is ad- 

 dressed to his friend M. Isidore Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire. 



" My dear Friend, 



" You demand of me certain details in reference to the 

 circumstances in which I gathered the Cryptogamic plant 

 which I sent you from the Red Sea, and which you told me 

 appeared a new species. They are as follow : 



" The 8th July last (1843) I entered into the Red Sea 

 by the Strait of Babelmandel upon the steam-boat the At- 

 alanta, belonging to the Indian Company. I demanded of 

 the captain and the officers, who for a long time navigated in 

 these latitudes (parages) what was the origin of this ancient 

 name of the Red Sea ; if it was owing, as some have pre- 

 tended, to sands of that colour, or, according to others, to 

 rocks. None of these gentlemen could reply to me; they 

 never, they said, remarked any thing to justify this denomi- 

 nation. I observed then for myself as we advanced : whether 

 the ship approached by turns the Arabian coast or the African 

 coast, the red was in no part apparent. The horrid moun- 

 tainous barriers which border the two banks were uniformly of 

 a blackish brown, except where in some places the appearance 

 of an extinct volcano had left long white streams. The 

 sands were white, the reefs of coral were white also ; the sea 

 of the most beautiful caerulean blue. I had given up the 

 hope of discovering my etymology. 



" On the 15th of July the burning sun of Arabia awoke 

 me suddenly by shining all at once, from the horizon without 

 spot, and in all its splendour. I turned myself mechanically 

 towards the window of the poop to seek a remnant of the 

 fresh air of the night before the ardour of the day had de- 

 voured it. What was my surprise to behold the sea tinted 

 with red as far as the eye could reach ! Behind the ship, 

 upon the deck, and on all sides I saw the same phenomenon. 



" I interrogated the officers anew. The doctor pretended 

 that he had already observed this fact, which was, according 

 to him, produced by the fry of fish floating on the surface ; the 



