Oct 31, 1878] 



NATURE 



711 



number of sea-fishes inhabiting both sides of the Isthmus, v.hich 

 Dr. Giinther has shown to be absolutely identical. To these 

 may be added several species of moUusca. With reference to 

 the mollusca Mr. Wallace* observes, "The long-continued 

 separation of North and South America by one or more arms of 

 the sea ... is further rendered necessary by the moUuscan 

 fauna of the Pacific shores of tropical America, which is much 

 more closely allied to that of the Caribbean sea, and even of 

 West Africa, than to that of the Pacific Islands. The families 

 of many of the genera are the same, and a certain proportion of 

 very closely allied or identical species, shows that the union of 

 the two oceans continued late into tertiary times. If fishes and 

 mollusca could thus pass from ocean to ocean, there is no doubt 

 that algae could also pass. Besides Sarg. bacciferum, S. vulgare, 

 and S. dentifolium, the following species, among others, are 

 common to both hemispheres, namely, Chnoospora fastigiata, 

 Hydrodathriis cancellatus, Digenia simplex^ Acanthophora 

 Thierri, and others too numerous to mention. It is further 

 thought that such plants are among the oldest forms of 

 algae, and that algre are among the oldest productions of the 

 vegetable world. Geologists are of opinion that the tropical 

 passage between the Atlantic and Pacific was open during the 

 tertiary and cretaceous epochs. How long a time has elapsed 

 since this period is another question that remains to be answered. 

 This can only be done approximately. "From the Devonian 

 period, or earlier," says Prof. Huxley, ^ "to the present day, the 

 four great oceans, Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Antarctic, may 

 have occupied their present positions, and only the coasts and 

 channels of communication have undergone an incessant altera- 

 tion." Mr. CroU, who, in his most interesting work "Climate 

 and Time," brings astronomical science to bear upon the eluci- 

 dation of geological problems, states that "the great ocean 

 basins are probably of immense antiquity ; that the great depres- 

 sions of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans may be as old 

 as the Laurentian period for any thing which geology shows to 

 the contrary." He also remarks — "all our main continents and 

 islinds not only existed during the glacial period as they do 

 now ; the very contour of the surface was much the same as at 

 the present day."^ xhe migration of S. bacciferum from one 

 ocean to the other must then have taken place previously to the 

 commencement of the glacial period — the most recent glacial 

 period, I mean — for Mr. Croll thinks that there were other 

 glacial periods with intermediate warm periods during the tertiary 

 epoch. He gives astronomical reasons* for saying that the 

 commencement of the most recent glacial epoch cannot date back 

 more than 24O,cx)0 years. As, then, there has been no material 

 alteration of the surface of the land since that period, and our 

 plant now inhabits and nan \\v £n tfie warmer parts only of the 

 three great oceans, the barriers to their intercommunication 

 being now closed as before mentioned, it follows that this alga 

 must be at least of greater antiquity than the glacial period, 

 240,000 years ago. How many thousands or hundreds of thou- 

 sands additional years may be added to its age, it is impossible to 

 say. Perhaps on some slab of rock from the depths of the earth 

 the astonished and admiring botanist may yet recognise a fossil 

 plant of the wandering Sargassum.^ 



If the presence of a great number of species in a limited area 

 is suggestive that the parent -stock may have originated in that 

 locality, then it is probable that the primary habitat of the genus 

 Sargassum may hare been in the Indian and adjacent oceans, 

 since it is on the southern coasts of Asia, the islands in the 

 Indian Ocean, and round the coasts of Australia and New Zea- 

 land (Mr. Wallace's " Oriental and Australian Regions," also 

 his " Ethiopian Regions," Nos. I and 4), that the greater mmi- 

 ber of species of Sargassum are found. No less than forty 

 species are known to inhabit the seas around Australia and New 

 Zealand. 



There are fair grounds for the opinion that many of the tropi- 

 cal algae of the three great oceans are probably among the oldest 

 forms of this class of plants — S, bacciferum and its congener 

 S. vulgare, also S. dentifolium, and other algae before men- 

 tioned may, therefore, be "survivals," still existing in health 

 and vigour, of the marine vegetation of a very remote period, 

 as ancient, at least, as the miocene ^ epoch, when the appearance 



' " Geographical Distribution of Animals," vol.ii., p. 58. 

 2 Address to the Gejlogical Society, reported in the jfotimal of the Geo- 

 logical Society, May, 1870. 

 * " Climate and Time," p. 9. ♦ I.e., p. 355. 



5 Among the fossil algx known to botanists are some specimens of 

 Sargassum. 



6 Mr. J. S. Gardner, F.G.S., has recently expressed his opinion that the 

 American continents became united during the eocene period (see Nature 



and configiuration of the country was, in all probability, different 

 from what it is at the present day. 



One cannot but look with wonder and admiration mixed with 

 somewhat of veneration, on the wandering Sargussum, still in 

 vigorous existence, which has survived so many changes of 

 climate affecting different parts of the earth's surface ; so much 

 variation in the boundaries of the sea-shores ; before which the 

 rise and fall of empires, and the very existence of man, form 

 almost inappreciable items in its life-history. 



In order to show the great numerical increase in the species of 

 Sargassum in the warmer seas, I shall conclude this article with 

 a tabular view of their geographical distribution. In the division 

 of regions I have followed Mr. Wallace. It is to be observed 

 that as some species range through more than one region, they 

 are consequently entered in each region, and thus the aggregate 

 of species appears to be greater than it really is. 



Mary P. Merrifield 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



The Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, has for^varded to 

 the Vice-chancellor certain statutes made by the College affect- 

 ing the University, and ill doing SO intimates that the Colleges 

 consider that the provisions of the Universities of Oxford and 

 Cambridge Act, 1877, do not bind them to postpone their final 

 adoption until one month after they have been co mmunicated to 

 the Council of the Senate. The statutes have reference to, 

 among others, the Trinity Professorship of Physiology. They 

 provide that any person hereafter elected to the Professorship 

 shall be entitled to a Fellowship at Trinity unless he is Master 

 or Fellow of some other College. The Trinity Professor of 

 Physiology is to receive an annual stipend of 500/., in addition 

 to the emoluments of a Fellowship. The new statutes also 

 provide that there shall be paid by the College to the University 

 an annual sum calculated upon the amount of the distributable 

 income of the College, which is particularly defined. Such 

 annual sums to commence from the time the statutes come into 

 operation, and shall be in the first instance equal to 5 per cent, 

 of the distributable income, to be increased to 7^ per cent, when 

 the statutes have been ten years in operation, and to 10 per 

 cent, when they have been fifteen years in operation. The pro- 

 visions of these statutes with respect to the Trinity Professor- 

 ship of Physiology shall take effect from and after the appoint- 

 ment of the first Trinity Professor of Physiology, under the 

 provisions of a statute or statutes to be made with the consent 

 of the College for the establishment of the said professorship. 



The French Government proposes to do an act of justice in 

 raising the stipends of professors in science and medicine to the 

 same amount as in the case of law and letters, 15,000 francs. Dr. 

 Simplice, who writes on the subject in the Union Medicale, points 

 out how unequally professors of pure science, as botany and 

 chemistry, are rewarded as compared with, say, clinical pro- 

 fessors, who can add enormously to their income by private 



vol. xviii. p. 192). If this be the fact, a great addition must be made to the 



antiquity of these plants. 



