64 



MANUAL OF THE MOLLTTSCA. 



weed bank, so «-s to include Madeira, the Azores, and Canary 

 Islands.* 



In the Atlantic portion of the province occur the following 

 genera, not met with in the Celtic and Boreal seas, although 

 two of them, Mvtra and Mesalia, occur on the coast of Green- 

 land : — 



Spain and Portugal. 



The coast of Spain and Portugal is less known than any other 

 part of the province, but the facilities for exploration are in 

 some respects greater than in the Mediterranean, on account of 

 the tides. Shell-fish are more in demand as an article of food 

 here than with us, and the Lisbon market afforded to Mr. 

 M' Andrew the first indication that the genus Cymba ranged so 

 far north. 



On the coasts of the Asturias and Gallicia, especially in Yigo 

 Bay, Mr. M' Andrew obtained, by dredging, 212 species, of a 



» In the nortlrern part of the Lusitanian province are the Pilchard fisheries ; in th« 

 Mediterranean, the Tunny, Coral, and Sponge fisheries. 



The Gulf-v^-eed banks (represented in the map) extend from 19" to 47" in the 

 middle of the North Atlantic, covering a space almost seven times greater than the 

 area of France. Columbus, who first met with the sargasso about one hundred miles 

 west of the Azores, v?as apprehensive that his ships v\-ould run upon a shoal. (Hunt' 

 boldt.) The banks arc supposed by Professor E. Forbes to indicate an ancient coast- 

 line of the Lusitanian land-province, on which the weed originated. Dr. Harvey states 

 that species of Sargaxsnm abound along the shores of tropical countries, but none 

 exactly correspond with the Gulf- weed (S. bacciferum) . It never produces fructifica- 

 tion—the " berries " being air-vesicles, not fruit— but yet continues to grow and 

 flourish in its present situation, being propagated by breakage. It may be an abnormal 

 condition of S. vulgare, similar to the varieties of Fncus 7i^dosus (Mackayi) and 

 F. vesicidosus which often occur in immense strata; the one on muddy sea-sliores, the 

 other in salt marshes, in which situations thej' have never been found in fructification. 

 {Manuai of British Alga, Mr. 16, 17.) 



