196 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 
service to science by solving these and similar problems. Perhaps this 
would also assist us in finding a satisfactory culture method. At present 
none of the Pheophycee, except a few of the simplest and hardiest forms, 
can be cultivated from spore to spore. This makes the investigation of the 
life-histories of these plants doubly difficult. 
It is difficult to understand why so little ecological work has been done 
on the Brown Algz of our shores. Since the publication of Miss Baker's 
interesting papers on the Zoning of the Brown Seaweeds and the Fuci of 
the Salt-Marsh very little has been done. Miss Knight, by following the 
development of marked Pylaiella plants, obtained fascinating results, show- 
ing how the plants assumed successive appearances so different from each 
other that they had previously received names as being distinct ‘ forms.’ 
Her account of the seasonal change of host-plants, and the relation between 
the host and the kind of sporangia produced is hardly less interesting. 
Work of a similar kind by other investigators would be very welcome. 
Our knowledge of the fruiting periods of the Pheophycee is scrappy 
and inaccurate. Some writers speak of Laminarias as if they all had 
a definite summer and winter season, not knowing that species of the 
same genus have different fruiting periods and that there is not one of the 
twelve months of the.year without some Laminarian or other being in full 
sporing activity. A mere calendar, however, would hardly suffice. One 
should distinguish between cases where all the sporangia or gametangia in 
a sorus or conceptacle are of the same age and where they are of different 
ages ; that is, the arrangements for the continuous supply of reproductive 
cells should be noted. 
Some plants, Dictyota for example, are exceedingly responsive to 
environmental changes. It would be very interesting to trace the connection 
between such plastic organisms and the factors affecting them. Fucus 
vesiculosus is an example of a very polymorphic species. Only a few of 
the many forms have been described, and we do not know to what extent 
the ‘ forms’ are really distinct. 
These are only a few out of the many interesting ecological problems 
that await investigation. One task, however, is very urgent. When we 
consider the great amount of fruitful work done by English algologists 
of a past generation in identifying, describing, and classifying marine 
Alge, it is very remarkable, not to say deplorable, that there has been no 
English Borgesen to compile a survey of the marine Algz of our shores. 
Even should a young algologist feel a desire to undertake such a task, 
there is at present no up-to-date English manual which he can use in 
identifying his plants. Itis a great testimony to the excellence of Harvey’s 
four volumes that they are still useful in spite of the progress that has been 
made since their publication. But it is time we had a new Phycologia ; 
in particular we need a new and well-illustrated ‘Handbook of the 
Pheophycee.’ 
