184 SEA MOSSBS. 



upon the rocks, stones and shells; others grow up 



in the form of plants. None of these, with the ex- 



.ception, possibly, of the Corallina, 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 Algse, but are concealed 



beneath the hard crust which is secreted upon the 



outside. 



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 Uttle time, upon the beach, bleach out quite 



