4 SEA MOSSES. 



In this little book I shall attempt to make you 

 acquainted, with what I have, these many years, found 

 to be as interesting as they are beautiful. I undertake 

 the work con amore. I remember how much I 

 needed some convenient and competent guide, when 

 first I wanted to enter this field of knowledge, and 

 delight, and asked in vain for it. I have many friends 

 who often go down by the breezy margin of Old 

 Ocean. With this book I want to make them ac- 

 quinted with some delightful friends of mine, who will 

 be there before them. I have spent many hours of 

 rare pleasure in collecting, mounting, and studying, 

 these simpler forms of Nature's handiwork. I greatly 

 desire to share this delight with the multitude of in- 

 telligent people who spend weeks and months by the 

 sea side, yearly, and the not less intelligent multitude, 

 who make their homes within sound of its waves. 



The work is written for beginners only, and not 

 for advanced students and specialists in this department 

 of Cryptogamic botany. I am ambitious for my book, 

 that it may be just a "Porter" to stand at the gate of 

 this wondrous garden of the sea and open for those 

 who come and knock. There was no such book to do 

 this in my day, so I had to " climb up some other 

 way." There were indeed the three ponderous quartos 

 of Harvey, and two or three little manuals of English 



