86 JOURNAL OF THE [October^ 



when I became aware of the existence of the publication, its sub- 

 ject has lain as a dream in my mind. Years after, when I had 

 become quite familiar with the diatoms of both the South and the 

 North, I recalled that in his tabulation from all sources he had 

 listed about ninety-four species, including both marine and fresh- 

 water, and never exceeding more than twenty-five species from a 

 given locality. It has also been a matter of curious interest to 

 me as to the methods of preparation for study in vogue in or 

 about 1850. In the present day, as proved by my slides, I have 

 been able to get eighty species in a single mount from Mobile 

 Bay marine muds, and nearly seventy-five species from the brack- 

 ish material from the shore of Mobile Bay — the same material as 

 apparently examined by him from Mobile Bay. In alluding to 

 this, I do so with full respect for the eminence of the most prom- 

 inent investigator, in his day, of the diatoms of North America, 

 and not with any desire to detract from the honor of his laborious 

 researches ; but the thought calls up the question as to whether 

 the methods of to-day are in advance of those of nearly a half- 

 century ago. In the preparation of this paper I could not well 

 omit the name of Prof. J. W. Bailey, as its interest turns largely 

 upon a diatom described and figured by himself from material 

 derived from Mobile Bay, and shown in the plates to his work 

 referred to above ; and likewise shown in Wolle's " Diatomacese 

 of North America." 



The opening during the present summer of a resort on Mobile 

 Bay, known locally as Monroe Park, by the Electric Railway 

 Company, enabled me to visit a strip of the shore of Mobile Bay 

 a few miles south of the city. While there, and looking around 

 for something of interest microscopically, I came upon a stratum 

 of lignite exposed on the beach at low tide. I repeated my 

 visits to this place to study it geologically. With a desire to 

 trace its extension, I made short excursions somewhat further 

 down the shore line from the Park, especially on occasions when 

 the tide was out in the evening. In this area the bay bottom was 

 covered, so far as the surface was free from the tide, with a species 

 of a moss-like water plant, which condition induced me to test 

 whether this moss-like growth would prove a source of diatoms. 

 I therefore gathered a portion of a plant, and by pressure forced 

 the fluid to fall on a spectacle glass used for such tests in the 



