154 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



times be confused with Thalassionema nitzschioides of Grunow. S. 

 pulchella var. Smithii Ralfs has also been noted to be present. 



The occurrence of Synedra undulata Bailey is interesting as add- 

 ing another locality to the wide distribution of the species first found 

 by the late Professor J. W. Bailey in Florida. It has since been met 

 with at many points on the Atlantic seaboard of America as far north 

 as the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. The writer has seen it in collections 

 from the Sandwich Islands, and now reports its occurrence in the 

 waters of British Columbia. 



5. ulna Ehr. is a fresh water species with a great many described 

 varieties. From the large volume of water from the British Columbian 

 rivers we should expect to meet with some of these. 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 



Abundance and Variety. Perhaps the most notable feature of the 

 collections from Vancouver Island is their richness both as regards 

 their individual and collective representation. The total number of 

 species recognized is about 270, with a considerable number still 

 unidentified. Different gatherings, however, vary greatly both as 

 regards the nature and abundance of the forms represented. 



The Plankton. This is particularly rich, though varying with 

 the seasons. Compared with other parts of the world it exhibits a 

 notable resemblance to the plankton of the colder latitudes both 

 north and south. Of the genera noted by Herdman as characteristic 

 of the North Sea, viz., Chaetoceros, Skeletonema, Thalassiosira, 

 Lauderia, Thalassiothrix, Rhizosolenia and Bacteriastrum, all with 

 the possible exception of the last abound in Vancouver waters, while 

 many other forms not strictly planktonic are common to the two. 

 Similar forms are also found in Christiania Fjord in Norway, in Bar- 

 entz Sea and in the Antarctic. 



An interesting connecting link with the latter is found in the 

 curious genus Corethron. In the North, as about Norway and Sweden, 

 forms of this genus, according to Gran, are rare and much smaller than 

 in the Antarctic, as collected by Amundsen and others (see Castracane 

 in Challenger's Report, and Karsten "Das Phyloplankton des Antark- 

 teschen Meeres — Deutsche Tiefsee Expedition, 1898-1899, Bd. II, 

 2 Teil, p. 101, Taf. XII-XIII.) Those of British Columbia are abun- 

 dant and of good size, but specially resemble the Antarctic species in 

 the prominent development of claw-like appendages which appear to 

 be but little developed or wanting in the European forms. 



Of the planktonic genera above mentioned Chaetoceros is certainly 

 the most common, the most varied and the most abundant. The 

 long spines with which its frustules are armed and by which it is so 



