INTRODUCTION 7 
umes of De-Toni’s Sylloge, the only paper dealing directly with 
Peruvian marine algae, so far as we have been able to discover, 
is a brief one by R. Pilger.* 
The algae of the Galapagos Islands, lying only five hundred or 
six hundred miles west of the coast of Ecuador, are of interest in 
connection with those of Peru, but the lists of Galapagos algae 
published by Piccone (loc. cit.) and by Farlow] would seem to 
indicate that the marine floras of these two regions have few species 
in common. 
NUMBER OF SPECIES 
A review of the literature relating to the marine algae of Peru 
leads to the opinion that, previous to Dr. Coker’s visit, about 68 
valid species belonging to this group had been reported as occurring 
within the present limits of the country. These were distributed 
in classes as follows: Cyanophyceae, 1; Chlorophyceae, 13; 
Phaeophyceae, 5; Rhodophyceae, 49. In Dr. Coker’s Peruvian 
collections we find 961 species, representing 67 genera. Of these 
96 we are venturing to describe 28 as new. The large propor- 
tion of novelties is due in part to the inclusion of a number 
of inconspicuous epiphytes and endophytes, which have offered 
an essentially unworked field so far as South America is concerned. 
Dr. Coker was, we believe, the first collector of Peruvian algae 
to make use of a dredge, and his finding of certain species that 
apparently had been overlooked by his predecessors may be due 
to that fact. About 27 of the apparently valid species of seaweeds 
hitherto attributed to Peru seem to have escaped his attention, 
so that there are good grounds for believing that the shores of the 
Peruvian republic may claim at least 123 species of marine algae, 
a number that surely will be much increased by future explora- 
tions. The incidental efforts of a fisheries expert on a coast 
that had previously been visited by several botanists have resulted 
in almost doubling the number of algae known from the region—a 
noteworthy achievement for any collector and particularly remark- 
able for one who was professedly neither a phycologist nor a 
ж Kleinere Beitráge zur Kenntnis der Meeresalgen I. Hedwigia 48: 178-183. 
pl. 7. 190 
Т Proc. Am. Acad. 38: 89-98. 1902 
t Including 2 that are here referred to genus only. 
