3G4 W. A. Setchell — Classification and Geographical 



The Agar em are a small tribe numbering only 6 species. Of these 

 Alaska has 5, the Sea of Ochotsk District 4, or the two districts 

 taken together^ possess the whole number of species. California 

 and Japan each possess 1 species as do also Baffin Bay and New 

 En,2^1and. The distribution of this subtribe then belongs entirely 

 to the northern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. There are no southern 

 species, nor any inhabiting either the European or Asiatic portions 

 of the Arctic Ocean. The home of the subtribe seems to be in 

 Behring Sea, whence are derived both the Calif orni an and the 

 Japanese species. The occurrence of a single species along the 

 northeastern coast of North America is not so easily explained. 



The distribution of Lessoneoe presents a number of very interest- 

 ing points. The home, as we might call it, of this subtribe seems 

 to lie in the region neighboring to Cape Horn, where the three 

 largest and most typical species of Lessonia are to be found. The 

 western coast of America possesses the same three species and in 

 addition L. Suhrii^ J, Ag., which may be said to be characteristic 

 of this coast. None of the subtribe are found either at the Cape of 

 Good Hope or upon the shores of Australia. L. fuscescens, Bory, 

 it is interesting to note is rare at Christmas Harbor, Kerguelen 

 Land,^ in the Antarctic Ocean, and at Tahiti, just south of the cen- 

 tral portion of the Pacific Ocean where it is associated with L. 

 Suh7'ii, J. Ag. the Chilian species.^ X. nigresce7is, Bory, and L. 

 ovata, Hooker, occurs at Heard Island just south of Kerguelen. In 

 the northern Pacific there exists a peculiar species of Lessonia in 

 the region of Behring Sea and on the coast of California there are 

 6 species belonging to the subtribe. The Californian species of 

 Lessonia are very much confused and not well-known, both L. fus- 

 €esce7is, Bory, and L. nigrescens, Bory, have been spoken of as per- 

 haps occurring upon the Californian coast,* but the determination 

 still remains undecided. There is a species which occurs at Oregon 

 and also one in the southern portion of California, which is referred 

 to L. nigrescens, Bory, in the table. 



But the most striking feature among the Californian Lessonese is 

 the existence of the four peculiar and characteristic species belong- 

 ing to three genera represented nowhere else, viz: Dictyoneuron, 



1 Cf. p. 362. 



2 Cf. Hooker, Flora Antarctica, Pt. 2, p. 457. 



2 Cf. Grunow, Reise der Oeterreichischen Fregatte Novara, Bot. Th., Bd. i. p. 51, 1870. 

 ^ Cf. Farlow, Proc. Am. Acad., vol. x, p. 355, 1875. Rept. U. S. Fish Comm. for 

 1875, p. 707, 1876. 



