Belonging to the same botanical order is the Ruppia maritima, found at Newhaven and Guernsey. The sea-sedges, a cat’s-tail grass, a foxtail grass, an agrostis, a sea reed, and a common poa grass, with a root-like bulb, are familiar objects on swampy seashores; and a whole group of grass plants belonging to a tribe called Sclerochloa inhabit sandy seasides. The couch-grass dwells there also; and the list may be closed by noticing the sea-barley, a tiny plant, but loving sandy pastures near the sea. And among the ferns a spleenwort lives on rocks over the sea. These are all plants of a complicated structure, and produce seed. But those about to be noticed are the true sea-weeds, which have a simple construction and belong to the cellular plants. Where the land-plant ends, the sea-weed begins, and as some flowering plants or grasses come close to the edge of the high spring tide, so some sea-weeds choose that position, and appear to like a dry time for a while, and a refreshing return of the salt water at distant intervals. One of these sea-weeds abounds on muddy seashores, at the entrance of rivers and marshes, and positively adheres to the roots of flowering plants. North Wales, Shoreham, the Essex coast, and the Shannon are places where it is found in abundance. Moreover, like most of the sea-weeds, it has a wide distribution, for it is found on the Atlantic shores of Europe as far south as Spain. The plant is from 2 to 4 inches high, and consists of stems about as thick as stout bristles. They branch and give off side-twigs, like the veins of leaves in shape, and each ends in a curious curl. The whole plant is limp, and easily squeezed flat. It is of a dull purple color, and from its curl endings has received a Greek name, “bostrukos,” a ringlet. Old authors called it “Amphibia,” from its locality, which has just been noticed; and it is remarkable, because most of the other red or reddish sea-weeds of its group live in deep water. Another sea-weed which lives at the very top of high-water mark, but which is also found on the shores down to low-water mark, and still lower, is a fine plant often growing a foot in height. Its stem is round and solid, and branched in what is called a pinnate manner, like a mimosa leaf. It is yellow or livid green in color, and is very small and starved at high-water mark, but it grows larger and larger until well under the sea. One of the kind is found on loose stones, where a rill of pure fresh water runs into the sea. In Scotland it was formerly eaten under the name of pepper dulse; but better things are now to be had. It is named Laurencia after a French botanist. A membrane-like sea-weed, which grows upward with swellings like a cactus which give it the appearance of a chain, is called the little chain sea opuntia (Catenella Opuntia). It is also a dweller on rocks, close up to high-tide mark, on our shores as far as the Orkneys.