I REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Commission for 1870-'72 is a List of the Marine Algw of the South Coast 

 of New England, in which 103 species jire enumerated ; and in the report 

 for 1875 is a List of the Marine Algce of the United States, intended as a 

 catalogue of the sea-weeds exhibited by the Commission at the Centen- 

 nial Exposition, in which additions were made to the New England flora. 

 Besides the papers referred to, I would mention A Igoe Bhodiacece, by S.T. 

 Olney, published in 1871; List of Marine Algce Collected near Eastport, 

 Me., by Prof. D. C. Eaton* ; two papers by the writer in the Proceed- 

 ings of the American Academy of Boston t; and List of the Marine Algce 

 growing in Long Lsland Sound within 20 miles of New Haven, by F. W. 

 Hallf. A series of dried specimens has been published conjointly by 

 Dr. C. L. Anderson, Prof. D. C. Eaton, and myself, under the title of 

 Algce Am.-Borealis. The 130 species already published, in three fasciculi 

 of 30 sets each, contain a number of the more interesting New England 

 forms. A set has been presented to the Fish Commission, and that, to- 

 gether with the large set prepared for the Centennial Exhibition, to be 

 deposited hereafter in the National Museum, will place in the hands of 

 the members of the Commission sufficient material to render the task of 

 determining our species comparatively easy. 



It will be seen that we rely almost wholly on Harvey's Nereis for our 

 knowledge of New England algse, and it is surprising that so few species 

 have been added to the flora in recent years. Of the species recently 

 added, by far the larger number are insignificant in size, the rare Ne- 

 mastoma Bairdii being almost the only species which would attract the 

 eye by its beauty. Professor Harvey himself spent but a few weeks on 

 the New England coast, and we must either suppose that the collectors 

 of Harvey's time were more acute than those of the last few years, or 

 else that the New England flora is very poor. That the flora is not very 

 rich in species, even for a temperate region, is probably true, but it is 

 too soon to assume that it is exceptionally poor. 



The number of species which are so large and striking as to attract 

 the amateur collector is nowhere large in temperate regions, and the 

 so-called richness of a flora is generally dependent upon the number of 

 small and insignificant species, which are recognized only by those who 

 make a careful microscopic study. One reason for the apparent pov- 

 erty of our marine flora is that our collectors have generally been ama- 

 teurs, who pass a few weeks upon the shore and gather only the more 

 beautiful and striking species. The number of persons who make micro- 

 scopic examinations of our algre is, however, increasing, and, as a result, 

 numbers of small, but interesting, species have within a short space of 

 time been brought to light, and it now seems likely that the New Eng- 

 land flora is by no means so poor as was formerly supposed. The sever- 



* Trans. Conn. Acad., vol. ii, part 2, 1873. 



t List of the Marine Algse of the United States, Proe. Am. Acad. Art. and Sci., voL, 

 x (n. s. ii), p. 351. On some Algse new to the United States, 1. c, vol. xii (n. s. iv), 

 p. 235. 



t Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, vol. vi, No. 21, Sept., 1876. 



