172 University of California Fnhlications . [botany 



Mertens collected and made notes, some of which, commnnicated 

 in the form of letters to his father. Professor Mertens in Bremen, 

 were published in 1829 in von Schlechtendal's jonrnal Linnaea. 

 In the ship Moller, one of those of Liitke's expedition, in com- 

 mand of Captain Staninkovitch, was Kastalsky, who collected 

 some fine materials which were pul)lished, with those of Mertens 

 and Postels, in the Illustrationes Algarnm. From these sources, 

 many specimens were carried back to St. Petersburg from Sitka, 

 the Peninsula of Alaska, Unalaska, the Pribilof Islands, and 

 Kamtschatka. The drawings and specimens formed the basis of 

 Postels and Ruprecht's large and splendid work, the Illustra- 

 tiones Algarnm, already referred to. This was published in 

 1840 and has always been rare. At about the same time that the 

 Liitke Expedition was exploring the shores of Bering Sea, the 

 expedition under the command of Captain Frederick William 

 Beechey was visiting the shores of Port Clarence and Kotzebue 

 Sound. The naturalists of the Blossom, Beechey 's vessel, col- 

 lected many of the higher plants, but apparently only one sea- 

 weed was brought back. This and the alga? of other coasts, 

 collected on this expedition, were described by William Henry 

 Harvey in Hooker and Arnott's Botany of Beechey' s Voyage 

 (between 1839 and 1841). The St. Petersburg Academy of 

 Sciences sent Wosnessenski on a ten years trip of scientific inves- 

 tigation of the shores of Russian America and he collected many 

 alga^ in California and the Ochotsk Sea, possibly also some on 

 the Northwest Coast. Dr. F. J. Ruprecht examined all the col- 

 lections from the Sea of Ochotsk, and especially those brought 

 back by Middendorf , and published the results in his Tange des 

 Ochotskischen Meeres in 1851. This work is full of references 

 to species and specimens from our territory and of notes on their 

 occurrence, comparisons with similar or identical species of other 

 regions and is to be accounted one of the most valuable contri- 

 butions to the algology of the Northwest Coast, although osten- 

 sibly dealing with another region. Another exploring expedition 

 to visit the coast and bring back collections of alga?, was the 

 United States Exploring Expedition, under Commander Charles 

 Wilkes, which visited the region of Puget Sound and adjoin- 

 ing coasts in 1841. The new species of algae were published 



