1907. , io7 



ALGiE. i 

 A Preliminary List of the Marine Alg^:. 



BY EDW. A. L. BATTERS, B.A., LL.B., F.L.S. 



In the month of April, 1906, I spent a week on Lambay en- 

 joying the hospitality of the Hon. Cecil Baring, to whom I am 

 much indebted for this opportunity of studying the marine 

 flora of a most interesting and beautiful locality. The rocky 

 nature of the coast, with its precipitous cliffs, pierced here and 

 there by deep gloomy caves, alternating with stretches of turf 

 running down to the water's edge, with a bed of Zostera marina 

 (unfortunately not exposed at low tide) to the west of the har- 

 bour, render the island an ideal collecting giound for the algo- 

 logist. During my visit I collected, and preserved for future 

 examination, a large amount of material, which 1 have since 

 worked out at my leisure, the result being the following list of 

 species. So far as I am aware no previous attempt has been 

 made to catalogue the Marine Algae of Lambay, nor indeed of 

 any limited portion of the coast of County Dublin. The only 

 mention of the island in algological literature known to me is 

 in the late Prof. W. H. Harvey's " Phycologia Britannica " 

 where it is recorded that Ectocarpus (Phlceospora) brachiatus 

 was found by Mr. W. Thompson at " Lambray " {sic) in 1883. 

 The present list, although comparatively long, is nothing more 

 than an enumeration of the spring species, and since many quite 

 common species have not yet been recorded from the island 

 there can be no doubt that a careful examination of its shores 

 in summer and autumn would result in adding a large number 

 of plants to those enumerated below. Not a single species of 

 Oscillatoria or Phormidium has been recorded from the island, 

 and at the time of my visit such common plants as Himanthalia 

 lorea, Callophyllis laciniata, Nitophyllum punctatum, and Dilsea 

 edulis were conspicuous by their absence ; whilst only one species 

 of Monostroma, very few Ectocarpi, and not a scrap of Stilophora 

 rhizodes, Alaria esculenta or any species of Daseya was met with ; 

 I was also unable to find any trace of Myriactis pnlvinata on its 

 usual host-plant, Cystoseira ericoides, which was fairly plentiful 

 in the deep rock-pools. On the whole, the marine flora of 

 Lambay resembles most nearly that of the Isle of Man or the 

 islands of the Clyde sea-area, and I have little doubt that 



