PREFACE. 
The evenings of one season, together with the hours that could be conveniently 
set apart from business, comprise all the time devoted to the collection of Algae and 
Corallines : the evenings have been principally devoted to preparing the specimens 
collected during the day. A residence within ten minutes’ walk of the rocky shore, 
where Algae are always found in great profusion, has favored the inclinations in this 
pursuit. When the tide calendar is favorable, sufficient plants could be collected 
within half an hour of sunrise, to occupy two or three evenings in preparing and dry¬ 
ing. Visits to distant shores of the Bay, have at times occupied several hours, or an 
entire day ; in such visits, the most delicate specimens were prepared and dried on 
the shore, while the more hardy and tough kinds were loosely covered with Fucus or 
Ulva, to preserve moist for the evening. The aggregate perambulations on the tidal 
and sea shore, will somewhat exceed one thousand miles, which, including the even¬ 
ings spent in preparing, will nearly or quite equal two thousand hours most agreeably 
devoted to the subject. The original'design was to acquire at least one of each spe¬ 
cies indigenous to the harbor. With that object in view, I have with indefatigable 
perseverance continued to the present time. The frequent discovery of new plants, 
even at this period, admonish, however, that my labors, although favored with suc¬ 
cess, are neither perfect or complete. The business affairs of the day have necessa¬ 
rily confined the microscopic examinations to the light of the candle or lamp, which, 
although greatly inferior to solar light, must, nevertheless, convince the observer that 
his sight is directed to an unfathomable abyss, too wide, too deep, too vast for perfect 
exploration by human eye, or intellectual vision. 
Some of the Corallines are easily prepared, and though technically separated 
from Algae, they were deemed worthy of notice in the same book. It is indeed pos¬ 
sible, that a more thorough knowledge of the two classes, may induce Naturalists to 
reduce them to one ; they have many characteristics that are common to both, while 
neither seem to possess all the properties that are essential to constitute a perfect ve¬ 
getable, or a perfect animal : the young spores and spawns of both classes have pow¬ 
ers oflocomotion, and swim about with great freedom in the water, while neither can 
mature and perfect its species, without permanent attachment to some matter or sub¬ 
stance. The Corallines have carnose or fleshy organs of nourishment; these are 
flexible, and when highly magnified are seen actively reaching for food. Algae have 
also flexible organs that move freely about for some purpose, and may, for all we 
know, be a carnose structure, specially adapted to catch and devour its food. I have 
described those organs under the name of antheridia, and have watched their motions 
with much care and solicitude ; some plants are thickly studded with these organs, 
