KONGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAK. BAND 20. N:0 5. 59 



have seen Ozothallia nodosa and Fucus vesiculosus drifting, and on the south coast of 

 Spitzbergen I have found Ozothallia nodosa washed ashore, overgrown with Polysiphonia 

 fastigiata. 



I have not myself found any of these algae growing in any of the numerous places 

 on the coast of Spitzbergen, that I have had the opportunity of examining. They are 

 however stated by others to occur there. If this be really true, they may be assumed 

 to have been transferred there in later times by the Gulf Stream. Whether any species 

 have made use of the convenient route along the coast to Waygats and Novaya Zemlya 

 cannot indeed be decided with certainty. It is possible, however, that Cladophora ru- 

 pestris, found at the south-western extremity of Waygats, and Spongomorpha lanosa, met 

 with at southern Novaya Zemlya, may have done so. It is possible also that a transfer 

 of algae has taken place formerly and is perhaps going on even at the present time by 

 means of those vessels which depart yearly in great numbers from northern Norway 

 for Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya and stay during the summer in the waters sur- 

 rounding these islands, as well as by those which start regularly since a long time for 

 Baffin Bay from more southerly regions. I have evidence of a transportation of this 

 kind taking really place, but I do not know whether the algae thus brought over into 

 the Arctic Sea have been able or are able to maintain themselves there. One of the 

 vessels employed in bringing over the Swedish expedition of 1872 to Spitzbergen, some 

 time after the arrival of the expedition, was found to be richly clothed with small-sized 

 Enteromorpha compressa, at and below the water-line. This plant had probably been 

 engendered by spores, which had attached themselves to the vessel in more southern 

 regions on the coast of Sweden or Norway and developed afterwards during the course 

 of the voyage. It is possible also that water-fowls, especially such as inhabit lagoons 

 on the coast, may carry with them some alga or other from the south. Perhaps Ehi- 

 zoclonium rigidum, which grows abundantly in the lagoons at Advent Bay in Spitzbergen, 

 has come to the high North in this manner. 



The marine Flora on the coast of Greenland includes a pretty considerable number 

 of species whose origin lies in a southerly direction, in the Atlantic. The number is 

 so considerable and the habitat of the algae is such that they cannot be supposed to have 

 been transported into those regions by the agency of either men or animals. Nor can 

 these species have come into the arctic waters about Greenland by means of seacur- 

 rents directly from the south, i. e. from the east coast of America, as the current here 

 goes from the north southwards, and, moreover, several species reported from Greenland, 

 are wanting on the American coast. This is the case with Hydrolapathum sanguineum, 

 Pelvetia canaliculata, Nitophyllum punctatum^ Furcellaria fastigiata, Callophyllis laciniata, 

 Asperococcus buUosus, Stupocaulon scoparium, Enteromorpha tubulosa. I do not certainly 

 feel quite sure that all these species occur really on the coast of Greenland. But as I have 

 myself seen specimens of some species, stated to have been collected at Greenland, and as 

 experienced algologists allege having seen specimens of the other species from the same 

 regions, I could not but quote them for the present among the Greenland algas. I cannot 

 explain their occurrence at Greenland otherwise than by the hypothesis that they 

 have arrived there from the east by Iceland, where at least some of them have been 



