IRbobora 



JOURNAL OF 



THE NEW ENGLAND BOTANICAL CLUB 



Vol. 6 September, 1904 No. 6g 



A SAILOR'S COLLECTION OF ALGAE. 



Frank S. Collins. 



Not long ago Dr. N. Wille of Christiania, Norway, placed in my 

 hands for examination a small but interesting collection of American 

 algae; interesting from the extension of range it gave to some spe- 

 cies, but even more interesting from the way in which it was made. 

 The specimens were collected by " Steuermann " Axel Moe, on vari- 

 ous voyages to this country ; from the ports at which the collections 

 were made, and from some of the notes, the vessels in which Mr. Moe 

 sailed were apparently mostly lumber carriers. A large part of the 

 lumber freight from America to Europe is in the hands of the Scandi 

 navians ; the ships are not usually the most recent models ; often 

 they are vessels no longer available for other business, but the buoy- 

 ant character of the cargo, and the excellent seamanship of the 

 Swedes and Norwegians that command and man them, make them 

 useful for many years after they would have been given up by other 

 nationalities. 



Mr. Moe had apparently no scientific knowledge of algae, but was 

 accustomed to pick up at any port, one or two floating seaweeds that 

 attracted his attention. They are all carefully mounted on paper, 

 with particulars of locality and date. Other specimens, mostly forms 

 of Sargassutn, were picked up in open sea ; and with them latitude 

 and longitude, to the minute, are given in every case. On one voy- 

 age his sister, Ragnhild Moe, was with him and collected a few 

 specimens ; all the others are his own handiwork. The time during 

 which these collections were made is from 1877 to 1902 ; the local- 

 ities range from Newfoundland and Bay Chaleur to Yucatan; the 

 only instances of fresh water algae are specimens of Stigeoclo7iium 



