266 CATALOGUE OF THE MARINE ALG^ 



XXII. — A Catalogue of the Marine Algce of Nortliumherland and 

 Durliam. By George S. Brady. Plate XV. 



I AM not acquainted with any list professing to embrace the 

 Avhole of our local Marine Algse, except that of N. J. Winch, given 

 in his excellent " Flora of Northumberland and Durham." His 

 work includes the partial lists given by Dr. George Johnston, in 

 his " Berwickshire Flora ;" by John Hogg, Esq., of Norton, in 

 an Appendix to " Brewster's History of Stockton ;" and that 

 contained in " Sharpe's History of Hartlepool." These lists — 

 written in accordance with the science of thirty years ago — are 

 now obsolete in their nomenclature, and likewise scanty in their 

 details when compared with the results of more recent local 

 research. The increasing study of the lower orders of plants; 

 and in particular, the more extended application of the micro- 

 scope to the elucidation of their structure and natural affinities, 

 have rendered inevitable great changes of classification and 

 nomenclature. Many plants which, when those catalogues 

 were written, were considered specifically distinct, are now 

 united under the same name ; and many, on the other hand, 

 which were then classed together, are now assigned to distinct 

 specie, or even genera. Some have been removed altogether 

 from the family of Alg^e; and some of the more minute tribes, 

 such as the Diatomaceos — though still regarded by most natural- 

 ists as strictly vegetable productions — have been found so dis- 

 tinct in many points both of their anatomy and physiology, that 

 they now constitute of themselves a wide and independent 

 field of microscopical research. 



It is not to be expected that a bleak, storm-swept coast like 

 that of England, north of the Tees — on the whole extent of 

 which there is scarcely to be found one sheltered bay, or one 

 deep inlet, whose waters might repose unvexed by the angry 

 swell of the Northern Sea,* a coast varied only by alternations 



* Yet there is a spot near the northern extremity of Whitley sands which seems in effect. 

 to form an exception to this statement. The beach there is very flat, and from about half 

 tide level to far beyond low-water mark is covered with rocks and boulders of rarieus, but 

 mostly of small size. They form a natural breakwater, and it is curious to observe, even 



