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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLV. No. 1157 



attention to some main lines of work in this 

 communication. The physiological eiSeets 

 of the pigments by Gaidukov, Eosanoff, 

 Eeinke, Schiitt and Kylin; metabolic ac- 

 tivities of various sorts such as those dealt 

 with by Loew and Bokorny, by Hansen, 

 Wille, Arber, Artari and a host of other in- 

 vestigators ; the physiology of reproductive 

 processes by Klebs; the method of produc- 

 tion of lime incrustations by Liitgeb; the 

 influence of external sun'oundings by Olt- 

 manns. The physiologico-anatomical re- 

 searches of Wille and his pupils may be 

 mentioned here. The influence of light, 

 temperature, specific gravity of the sea 

 water, chemical stimuli, etc., have been 

 touched upon by various authors, but these 

 important physiological bases for explain- 

 ing the facts of geographical distribution 

 and particularly of ecological distribution 

 are still most obscure. 



To deal with the geographical distribu- 

 tion of plants it must be recognized that 

 there are several methods of approach, and 

 in dealing with the geographical distribu- 

 tion of the marine algse, the methods of ap- 

 proach are, in general, the same as those 

 used in dealing with other plants. The 

 first efforts are fioristic and usually largely 

 taxonomic. Species are defined more and 

 more accurately and floras are made out 

 for larger or smaller coast lines. Then 

 comes a comparison of floras with one 

 another as to percentages of common or 

 differing species. Cosmopolitan or wide- 

 spread species are discussed, as are also 

 endemic species, or at least species of more 

 restricted areas and finally the comparison 

 of floras leads to a discussion of the rela- 

 tion of floras as to origin, spread, etc. 



Less has been done in the floristics of 

 marine algse than in that of terrestrial 

 plants. There are comparatively few floras, 

 although many lists have been published. 

 One of the earliest marine floras or lists was 

 that of Goodenough and Woodward for the 



British Fuci (1797) in which only 72 spe- 

 cies were described. This was followed by 

 that of Turner (1802), who enumerated 

 and described 78 species. These included 

 only the species of Funis as then under- 

 stood. Greville in his Algee BrittanicEe 

 (1830) greatly increased the number and 

 Harvey in the two editions of his Manual 

 (1841 and 1849) as well as in the Phyco- 

 logia Brittanica (1846-1851) brought the 

 number up to 388, while Holmes and 

 Batters in their lists of British Algs 

 (1890, 1891) enumerate 557 species. C. A. 

 Agardh's Synopsis Algarum Scandinavia 

 (1817) is another early algal flora as is also 

 Lyngbye's "Tentamen Hydrophytologics 

 DanicEe" (1819). More modern is the 

 "Algues Marines du Cherbourg" (1864) 

 of A. Le Jolis and one which has had great 

 influence as a model. One of the earliest 

 accoTxnts to contain a direct comparison be- 

 tween a particular marine flora and other 

 marine floras is Farlow's "Marine Algee of 

 New England" (1881), in which the com- 

 parison is made in the percentage of spe- 

 cies between the various subdivisions of the 

 New England coast and also between them 

 and the flora of various parts of Europe, of 

 the Arctic Regions and of the Pacific Coast 

 of North America. Martens (1866) had 

 previously made such a comparison in de- 

 tailed list between various divisions of the 

 tropical marine flora. Other writers have 

 attempted to classify floras as to their con- 

 tent of species common to or characteristic 

 of other regions as well as those confined to 

 their own region. The most formally fio- 

 ristic papers as to geographical distribution 

 of marine algse are those of George Mur- 

 ray on "A Comparison of the Marine 

 Floras of the Warm Atlantic, Indian Ocean 

 and the Cape of Good Hope" (1894) and 

 of George M^^rray and E. S. Barton on "A 

 Comparison of the Arctic and Antarctic 

 Marine Floras " (1895). These papers deal 

 with the percentage of endemic species and 



