176 Rhodora [September 



Plumaria elegans grew here in luxuriant specimens, on shaded 

 perpendicular or overhanging rocks, sometimes five or six feet above 

 low water mark. I have never found specimens of such large size 

 on the Massachusetts coast, where the plant grows in similar stations, 

 but large specimens are abundantly washed ashore at Newport, 

 Rhode Island, though the plant is never found attached above low 

 tide level. And during more than twenty years collecting, I have 

 never seen a specimen washed ashore, north of Cape Cod. 



Machias, where the Josselyn Society meeting was held, is not a 

 station for marine algae, but excursions were made to two points on 

 the shore, Roque Bluffs and Point of Main, including a visit from 

 the latter to Starboard Island. In crossing the bar which at low 

 water makes a peninsula of the island, I saw plants of Laminaria 

 platymcris growing on rocks and large pebbles, in some cases with 

 stipes so short that the lamina seemed sessile. As noted by 

 Setchell x this plant, on the Massachusetts coast, is usually epiphytic 

 on larger Laminarias, but along the eastern half of the Maine coast 

 it usually grows on stones. What is commonly known as Dclesscria 

 aiata was found in some abundance at Starboard Island, washed up 

 from below low water mark; the plants quite luxuriant. On the 

 American coast this species seems specially a northern plant, grow- 

 ing smaller as we go south, seldom occurring south of Nahant. In 

 Europe what passes for the same species is most luxuriant in the 

 English Channel, in company with species here found only south of 

 Cape Cod, and others not found north of North Carolina. It may 

 be that the European and the American plants are distinct. 



Rhodophyllis dichotoma has been reported from New England only 

 from Cape Ann and Marblehead. As it occurs at Greenland and 

 Labrador, it might be expected anywhere on the Maine coast, but it 

 was interesting to have its presence there established by specimens 

 in the collection of Miss Lucy Longfellow of Machias, secured at 

 some of the islands near by. When at Portland, the week following 

 the meeting, I found specimens in the collection of the Portland 

 Natural History Society, gathered in Portland harbo<r, by the late 

 C. B. Fuller, then curator of the society. 



The relations between things apparently distinct are sometimes 

 important. If the steamboat wharf at Machiasport had not been 



1 Rhodora, Vol. II, p. 143. 



