262 FARLOW— VEGETATION OF SARGASSO SEA. [April 24, 



are not as yet warranted in assuming that the floating gulf-weed 

 could not have been derived originally from some fixed, fruiting 

 form. Certainly we do not at present know from what species it 

 might have been derived but, until the distribution of the Sargassa 

 on the eastern coast of America and the West Indies is better known 

 and the characteristics and variations of the various described species 

 have been more thoroughly studied, the question of the origin of the 

 gulf-weed seems to me to be still open. 



