CORALLINES 
OF THE 
BAT ADD HARBOR OB NEV YORK. 
Some of the Corallines, to the unassisted eye, resemble the Algse so closely, as 
to be often mistaken the one for the other; their structure is, however, widely dissi¬ 
milar, and with the aid of a microscope there is no possibility of confounding the two 
classes. The Genus Sertularia of Linnseus, now divided into several genera, are par¬ 
ticularly liable to be confounded with Algse, on account of their general habit; they 
are filiform, branched, and articulated, or have that appearance from the insertion of 
the polype cell, as well as from rings and contractions above and below the cells : 
they are also rooted, and greatly resemble miniature trees or shrubs ; they are de¬ 
scribed by that accomplished Naturalist, in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae, 
as “ Sertularia, Stirps , fibrosa, nuda, articulata ; articulis unifioris.” This class is 
numerously represented in our harbor ; and on account of the polypidom retaining its 
natural form when dried, is more than any other adapted to illustration with natural 
types. 
Corallines are often attached to old shells, to clams, oysters, and to wood; the 
latter seems a favorite habitat, especially when the wood, is permanently fixed, and 
well soaked with water. The broken gil-net poles that are abandoned by the fisher¬ 
men, and the brush fike-hedges, that give a landscape appearance to the Bay between 
Jersey City and Bedlow’s Island, are at all seasons covered with myriads of Coral¬ 
lines. The brush and twigs of the fike-hedges become so loaded as to break off, and 
are then carried by the tide to the southern shore of Jersey City, where the beach is 
often lined with them. These stakes, poles, and brush, as I have elsewhere remarked, 
are used in the shad fishery, which for the past half century has been extensively pur¬ 
sued in Jersey City. The latter part of March is the beginning of the shad season, 
and then the busy note of preparation is heard along Hudson-street. The newly- 
painted nets are hung up to dry ; the boats are repairing, or already launched, and 
occupy every safe nook and corner about the slips. Hickory trees of from 75 to 100 
feet in length, that were cut during the winter in the densely wooded part of our 
State, are arriving, or have already been deposited from the teams ; men in stockinet 
shirts, thick homespun trowsers, and true thick water-proof boots, with brown com¬ 
plexions, strong arms, and warm, cheerful hearts, throng the shore, and dot the river 
in their twin-boat contrivance for sticking the fish-poles into the bed of the river. The 
fishermen are from Monmouth county mostly ; they reside near the sea-coast, and 
like the stormy Petrel, they walk and subsist on the ocean ; their launch and return 
through the surf in the season of bass and codfish, requires a steady nerve and daring 
