82 TUFTS COLLEGE STUDIES, VOL. II, No. 3 



Oregon, near the coast, have been collected to a considerable 

 extent within the past few years ; but for the rest of the United 

 States there is only the record of a few species, here and there, 

 at isolated stations. Lists have indeed been published, at 

 various times, of local floras, but when the attempt has been 

 made to see the material on which these lists were based, it 

 has usually been found impossible ; in the few cases where the 

 material was accessible, so many determinations were found to 

 require correction as to make it out of the question to accept the 

 determinations of lists whose material could not now be exam- 

 ined. For such great regions as Canada and Mexico practically 

 no records exist. As regards marine algae the case is not quite 

 so bad. They follow the seashore, and it is easier to become 

 familiar with the narrow strip that represents their distribution, 

 than with the great enclosed area through w r hich the fresh water 

 species are to be found. The stretches of shore of which we are 

 still ignorant are not disgracefully long. But while in fresh 

 water collections the green algae constitute the greater part, 

 and include the most conspicuous forms, the collector at the 

 shore, if not a specialist, is likely to bring away the showy 

 brown and red algae, to the neglect of the less notable green 

 plants. The marine flora of Greenland is as well known as 

 that of any region of the size ; that of the New England 

 coast has been studied for many years, but from New Jersey 

 to Florida, published records are quite insignificant. Some 

 recent observations at Beaufort, North Carolina, at the lab- 

 orator}- of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, which the authori- 

 ties have kindl}- allowed to be here used, to some extent 

 supply this deficiency ; the flora of Key West is probably as 

 well known as any tropical or subtropical flora ; lists of con- 

 siderable completeness have been published for_ a number of 

 the West India Islands. But beginning with the west coast of 

 Florida, all the way round the Gulf of Mexico to the isthmus, 

 we have practically no records ; the same is the case on the 

 Pacific coast from the isthmus to California ; from the Mexico- 

 California boundary north to the Arctic Ocean observations 

 have pretty well covered the coast line, and it is not likely that 

 any special flora has escaped our notice. This does not mean 



