80 Prof. Bailey on the Ale@ of the United States. 
Arr. X.—Notes on the Alz@ of the United States 3 by TOW: 
Battey, Professor of Chemistry, é&c. at the U. S. Military 
_ Academy. 
ScarceLy any branch of natural history has been so much 
neglected in the United States as that which relates to the beau- 
tiful plants which are referred to the great group of Alge. With 
the exception of six or eight species from the neighborhood of 
New York city, which were sent by Dr. Torrey to the elder 
Agardh, and which are mentioned in the Systema Algarum, I 
am not aware of any published account of any of the marine 
Algze of the United States, prior to the following notice, which 
I find in the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural His- 
tory, Vol. I, p. 13. 
leata ; Dichloria viridis; Chorda filum ; Asperococcus echinatus; 
Punctaria latifolia; Delesseria sinuosa; Rhodomenia cristata ; , 
Chondrus crispus; Ptilota plumosa; Porphyra several species ; 
I can find no published notice of any of our fluviatile Alge, 
although they appear to have been studied with some care by 
the indefatigable Schweinitz. I have seen in the herbarium of 
. Lorrey, a number of specimens of the fluviatile Conferve of 
North Carolina, collected by Schweinitz, and with labels in his 
own hand-wriling, indicating that he considered many of the 
Species as new, and that he had assigned to them names of his 
own. If he ever published any notice of them, I cannot find it 
in the books to which I have access, 
It appears then, that scarcely more than twenty species of 
Algz have hitherto been accredited to our Flora. In this dearth 
of information, I am induced to hope that the results of my own 
study in this much neglected but most fascinating department of 
science, will be received with interest and indulgence. 
My attention was first turned to this study at the request of 
Dr. Torrey, who wished ‘me to prepare a notice of the Alge of 
New York, to be ineluded in his Report on the Botany of that 
State. He kindly placed the whole of his collection of foreign 
Alge in my hands, and it is by the study of his authentic speci- 
mens received directly from Agardh, Greville, Harvey, Mrs. Grif- 
fiths, &c., that I have been enabled to proceed with some confi- 
dence in the determination of our own species. 
_My inland position has, however, prevented me from having 
many opportunities for collecting our marine Alge. In fact, with 
