SARGASSO WEED 147 



further, on the authority of Kuntze, that S. bacci- 

 ferum and S. vulgar e are identical, and he believes 

 that S. bacciferum is the floating form of S. vulgare, 

 which occurs plentifully on the coast of the Bermudas. 

 But against this opinion Sauvageau has protested 

 most energetically ; he maintains that S. bacciferum 

 and S. vulgare are not identical. By his kindness, for 

 which I hereby wish to express my sincere thanks, I 

 am allowed to make use of letters written to him by 

 the American algologists, Farlow and Collins, who 

 have studied the flora of the American seas, and agree 

 that S. bacciferum and S. vulgare are different plants. 

 Mr. Collins, in speaking of S. vulgare, says : " The 

 plant in question grows attached in shallow water ; 

 I do not think it occurs floating, except as any other 

 alga that is washed ashore when torn from its fasten- 

 ings, but not continuing to live in a floating state." 

 According to Professor Farlow, it might be possible 

 that S. bacciferum is a floating form of S. lendigerum, 

 common in the Bermudas, but this is only a supposi- 

 tion ; and Collins, again, says, speaking of S. lendigerum, 

 that its shoots soon perish after having been detached. 



Farlow, Collins, and Howe agree that S. bacciferum 

 does not occur on the coast of America growing 

 attached. 



It is clear that intelligent collectors could do much 

 to forward our knowledge of the Sargassa. They 

 should try, above all, to bring home entire plants, with 

 rootlets and basal leaves as well as with the long 

 secondary shoots, and not forget that fruit-bearing 

 branches are of great interest. 



Rhodophycese. — The greater part of marine algae are 

 Rhodophycese ; they are usually small in size, with the 

 exception of some species of Halymenia, Gigartina, 

 Iridaea, etc. They are, as a rule, soft and slippery to 



