[bailey] the diatoms OF NEW BRUNSWICK 75 



other Crustacea also abound. Foraminifera, such as Rotalia, Discor- 

 bina and Spirillina, are much more rare. Sponge spicules, of con- 

 siderable variety, were common in nearly all the collections. 



5. Contrasts between the Diatom flora of the Bay of Fundy and 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence. About eighty species collected on the North 

 Shore have not yet been observed in the waters of the Bay of Fundy; 

 while about thirty-six occurring in the latter have not yet been found 

 about the Gulf. 



The far greater profusion of Diatoms in favourable localities on 

 the North Shore and about Prince Edward Island as compared with 

 the southern coast, of New Brunswick, is a noticeable feature. In 

 the lower part of the Miramichi River, about Chatham, Nelson and 

 Newcastle, where the shallow waters abound in eel-grass, Diatoms 

 occur in far greater numbers than ever seen at any one locality on the 

 southern coast. In the brackish waters of the Kennebecasis, however, 

 as at Matthews' Cove and Rothesay, where there are great areas of 

 Potamogeton, the Diatom flora is most remarkable, alike for its variety 

 and for the numbers of individuals — over 80 species having been col- 

 lected from Matthews Cove alone. 



6. Geographical Distribution. Of 340 species found along the 

 New Brunswick coast and adjacent estuaries, 104 species eccur also in 

 connection with the oyster beds of Narragansett Bay, R.I., while 126 

 species found in the latter have not yet been observed in New Bruns- 

 wick. Of the 455 species described in Smith's synopsis, as occurring 

 in England, 172 occur also in New Brunswick, but more recent obser- 

 vations in Great Britain would add materially to the list of those com- 

 mon to the two countries. Of the 82 genera given by Wolle as oc- 

 curring in North America, 62 have been observed in New Brunswick. 

 The number of species so far found in Prince Edward Island is 130. 



6. Generic and Specific Distinctions. There has of late years 

 been a tendency to reduce the number of genera and species of Dia- 

 toms. No doubt this is very desirable, many Diatoms, and especially 

 those named by Ehrenberg and Kutzing, being insufficiently described 

 or poorly figured, but some of the proposed changes are certainly open 

 to objection. The author agrees with Dr. Mann that it is certainly to be 

 regretted that a form so well and so long known as Pleurosigma, and 

 of which the latter name is so distinctive, should have to be replaced 

 by that of Gyrosigma, notwithstanding the law of priority. The same 

 applies to the names Pinnularia and Stauroneis, which, though un- 

 doubtedly Naviculac, are yet, as a rule, so readily distinguished from 

 the other forms referred to this group. Such changes are also imj ust 

 to those by whom the species were first described. Thus, the beautiful 

 form first figured and described as Stauroneis maculata by the late 



Sec. IV, 1913—5 



