352 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



of making careful microscopic investigations on the shore, is not con- 

 ducive to a scientific knowledge of our algre. Of the coast from New 

 York to Charleston we know very little ; but, owing to its sandy char- 

 acter, we are not to expect much. Botanists visiting the Delaware 

 Breakwater, Norfolk, or Wilmington, N.C., would do good service by 

 giving lists of the algie found there, that the southern limit of several 

 common species might be fixed. 



Whatever may be said of the poverty of our eastern coast, Key West 

 outranks even the famous Biarritz for number of species. It is curious 

 to notice the very large per cent of the species in the following list 

 which occur there. The flora of that region is peculiarly West Indian, 

 and has little in common with that of the rest of the United States. 

 We are in almost complete ignorance of the algte on the coast of the 

 States bordering on the Gulf of Mexico. The Pacific coast far ex- 

 ceeds the eastern in the richness of its flora, and future additions to our 

 algiB will come from this region. Fortunately, the number of botanists 

 in the Pacific States is now tolerably large, and the work of deciding 

 the limits of doubtful species must be accomplished by observers on 

 that shore rather than in eastern herbaria. 



The classification followed in the accompanying list is that adopted 

 by Harvey in the Nereis Am.-Bor. Since his day, discoveries have 

 been made with regard to the development of the different groups, 

 which demand a qapplete revision of Harvey's classification ; but this 

 is not the place for instituting such a change. Species not mentioned 

 in the Nereis are denoted by a stai'. The attention of persons living 

 on the seashore is directed to the italicized questions. 



The list is intended to include all the species growing on the shores 

 of the United States proper, not including Alaska. Those of Van- 

 couver's Island are only in jiart enumerated, and some of the following 

 named species mentioned by Harvey, in his article on the Algas from 

 the North-west Coast, may occur also in our Pacific States : Ci/sto- 

 plii/Uum Lepidium, Rupr. ; Carpomitra Cahrerce, Kiitz. ; Agarum 

 Jimhriatnm , Harv. ; Laminaria apoda, Ilarv. ; Ectocarpus ovlger, 

 Ilarv. ; Polysiphonia senticulosa, Harv. ; Cijstocloniuin gracilarioides, 

 Harv. ; CaUuphylUs Jlabelkdcita, Harv. ; Kalhjmenia reniformis, A^, ; 

 Jridcea cordata, Ag. ; Halymenia ligulata, Ag. ; Prionitis LyalU'i, 

 Harv.; Schizymenia'? coccinea, Harv.; Ccdlitliamnion tliuyoideum^ 

 Ag. ; and C. suhidatum, Harv. 



