184 SEA MOSSES. 



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 Algae, 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 little time, upon the beach, bleach out quite 



