NO. 1 TAYLOR : PACIFIC MARINE ALGAE 35 



phycean. This in Florida is replaced by a flora of approximately 25 per 

 cent of Chlorophycean species, 15 per cent of Phaeophycean, and 60 per 

 cent of Rhodophycean. Unfortunately, on the West coast we have no 

 easy way to analyze the cold-water flora as yet. The mild temperate flora 

 of California as represented by Monterey shows approximately 14 per 

 cent of Chlorophycean species, 21 per cent of Phaeophycean, and 65 per 

 cent of Rhodophycean. The flora represented in the present catalogue is 

 not strictly tropical, though dominated by that type of plant. Here we 

 find approximately 17 per cent of Chlorophycean species, 16 per cent of 

 Phaeophycean, and 67 per cent of Rhodophycean, reflecting the domi- 

 nant tropical influence. 



The algal distribution in the area of our study may then be summarized 

 somewhat as follows. The flora of the outer coast of the peninsula of 

 Baja California, at least for the greater part of its length, most resembles 

 that of California to the north. That of the Is. Revilla Gigedo, lying off 

 its southern end, however, resembles the Mexican mainland algae. There 

 is no marked change in the rather impoverished yet tropical flora, though 

 it is very imperfectly known, thence to Ecuador. The Ecuadorean main- 

 land is less related to the Peruvian than to the mainland algae farther 

 north. The flora of the Galapagos Islands contains a good many species 

 not known elsewhere and in certain aspects, particularly along the 

 southern border of the group, may have definite south subtropical or south 

 temperate affinities. The dredged flora has few representatives which one 

 might attribute to a distinctively cool-water element, though it may in 

 the southern Galapagos have a southern element of a subtropical char- 

 acter. While more species of Rhodophyceae were dredged than of the 

 other groups, the Phaeophyceae were unexpectedly numerous. 



This is in accord with the currents and water temperatures prevail- 

 ing (see Sverdrup 1940, p. 273, and especially Fleming 1939, p. 167). 

 In general, the Peru or Humboldt Current from the South American 

 coast sweeps up to the Galapagos Islands and turns west below the lati- 

 tude of Guayaquil to join the westward South Equatorial Current. The 

 water filters between the Galapagos in a northwestwardly direction, and 

 frequently at the relatively high rate of 1.5-2.5 knots. The Equatorial 

 Counter Current running east just north of the Galapagos divides ofif the 

 Central American coast, a portion forming a current flowing northwest- 

 ward ofif Nicaragua and another portion joining eddy currents in the 

 Gulf of Panama to flow southward to Ecuador. The currents from 

 Costa Rica to Ecuador vary a good deal locally and with the season, in 

 some degree reversing direction seasonallj^ The northern Galapagos may 

 receive a southwestward flow in the winter, a northwestward one in the 



