Section I] —BOTANICAL. 
General Characteristics of the Algal Vegetation of Buzzards Bay and Vineyard 
Sound in the Vicinity of Woods Hole. 
By BRADLEY Moore Davis. 
Chapter 1—INTRODUCTION. 
Ever since the publication of Harvey’s ‘‘ Nereis Boreali-Americana,” in 1852, 1857, 
it has been recognized that the marine alge of the Atlantic coast of North America 
were separated by Cape Cod into two floras. The distinction was discussed in detail in 
Farlow’s report ‘‘The Marine Alge of New England,” 1881, and in his earlier “List of 
the Sea-weeds or Marine Alge of the South Coast of New England,” 1873. The work 
of later algologists has only served to emphasize the fundamental differences between 
the two marine floras, and the results of this survey add further evidence in support of 
this general conclusion. 
Similar conclusions have been reached by zoologists respecting the distribution of 
marine animals north and south of Cape Cod. The fauna from the cape northward to 
Labrador is regarded as essentially a continuous one, with no changes that are com- 
parable to those which appear southward. Two faunas separated by Cape Cod have 
thus been distinguished, and there seems to be a difference between these similar to that 
between the two marine floras. The most important reasons for the difference between 
the faunas and floras north and south of Cape Cod are undoubtedly the same. 
The marine alge north of Cape Cod, as pointed out by Farlow (1881), are in general 
a part and continuation of the flora of Greenland and Newfoundland. Many of the 
most characteristic species of the flora, as judged quantitatively, are identical with those 
of the Scandinavian coast, and it seems clear that the alga of the west and east side of 
the north Atlantic are a part of a general Atlantic boreal flora. 
The reason for the boreal character of the algal flora north of Cape Cod is undoubt- 
edly the low range of temperature which prevails even through the warmer months of 
the year. The coast is bathed by a belt of cold water that lies between the coast and 
the Gulf Stream, this belt being from 200 to 250 miles broad off a large part of the New 
England coast, although the Gulf Stream is only about 80 miles from Marthas Vineyard 
and Nantucket. The temperature of these waters, except in sheltered situations, only 
reaches 60° F. or slightly above for a few weeks in midsummer, and for the greater part 
of the year is below 50°, and remains below 40° throughout the winter. The explanation 
of this condition involves a number of factors, which are discussed in section 1, chapter 
II, pages 35 and 51, to which the reader is referred for details. The most important 
point for present consideration is the undisputed fact of the presence of a belt of rela- 
tively cold water north of Cape Cod, lying between the Gulf Stream and the New 
England shores, which directly influences the algal flora. 
The marine alge south of Cape Cod may be grouped into what Harvey (1852, p. 26) 
calls the flora of Long Island Sound, extending from Cape Cod to New Jersey. It includes 
443 
