224 SEA MOSSES. 



long slender spines, and often bears a few small, 

 thin leaflets along its edges. It grows to the height 

 of twelve or sixteen inches or more, and is an inch 

 or an inch and a half wide. The color is a deep, 

 brownish red. It is abundant along the whole Cali- 

 fornia coast. It may be found near the wharf, at 

 Santa Barbara, and at the beach, and mussel beds, 

 at La Jolla, San Diego. 



A plant, which the botanists have insisted upon 

 calling a variety of this, var. horrida, but which differs 

 from it in all respects, quite as much as G. spinosa 

 does, is very common along the whole coast. It is 

 a much smaller plant, thicker, and darker colored, 

 and vastly more profusely and irregularly divided, and 

 branched, than the typical form. It is literally clothed 

 in almost every part, with long, closely set, simple 

 or branched spines. Its appearance well entitles it 

 to the cognomen "horrid." It is present in considerable 

 numbers, in almost every gathering of California 

 " Sea Mosses " which one gets. Why it is not worthy 

 of a regular specific " local habitation and a name," 

 is more than appears clear to me. 



GiGARTINA CANALICULATA, HarV. 



This, also, is a very common species on the Cal- 

 ifornia coast, but quite unlike any other representa- 



