TRbooora 
JOURNAL OF 
THE NEW ENGLAND BOTANICAL CLUB 
Vol. 14. April, 1912. No. 160 
THE BOTANICAL AND OTHER PAPERS OF THE WILKES 
EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 
FRANK S. COLLINS. 
THE United States Exploring Expedition under the command of 
Charles Wilkes, U. S. N., started in 1838 and continued until 1842; 
the scientific results of the expedition were published in a series of 
volumes, the first in 1846, the last in 1874. In 1862 separates of the 
text and plates referring to the lower cryptogams are said to have been 
issued, with some plates representing phaenogams; the text for the 
former beginning with page 113; the text belonging to the latter, 
beginning with page 205, did not appear until 1874, when all were 
issued together as Vol. XVII, the title page bearing the double date 
1862, 1874. In looking up the original descriptions of some species 
of algae published here, I found that the references to them by later 
authors were frequently erroneous, and I thought a note giving the 
correct references might be of use. While getting together the data. 
for this I came upon some rather interesting facts in regard to other 
papers issued in the series, and my note has been gradually extended 
beyond the original plan. I will first give the results of my investi- 
gation as far as the algae are concerned, afterward and more concisely 
what I have found of interest as regards the rest of the series. 
The work seems to be little known to writers on algae; it is not 
included in any of the bibliographies of De Toni, Sylloge Algarum, 
with the exception of a reference in Vol. I, p. IX, to the Diatomaceae, 
which occupy only 9 pages of the work; the reference is to Vol. VIII 
of the series, which is incorrect. In the very full synonymy and 
