60 KJELLMAN, THE ALGiE OF THE ARCTIC SEA. 



hitherto met with. To be sure, there is no current leading directly from Iceland to 

 Greenland, but by that current which passes along the coast of Iceland in a north- 

 westerly direction, they may possibly have been carried into the region of the great 

 Polar current or Greenland current and then brought on by means of that to the coasts 

 of Greenland. But if this can have happened with these species, it can, of course, have 

 happened also with other southern forms occurring on the coast of Greenland. 



The immigration to Greenland would thus have taken place not from the south, 

 but from the east, from the European part of the Atlantic by way of Iceland. A closer 

 investigation of the marine Flora of Iceland would surely give several important results 

 on this point. 



Even from the northern part of the Pacific algae have surely immigrated at later 

 times. However, I can hardly cite more than one reliable instance of it. No species 

 is known with certainty from the Siberian Sea, that must be supposed to have immi- 

 grated there from the Pacific, if we do not assume, as certain or probable, that those 

 algae, Rilota asplenoides and a species of Laminaria nearly related to L. longipes, which 

 are said to be found in the Siberian Sea at the mouth of the Lena, do really grow in 

 the place from where they have been reported ^). If they belong to the Siberian Sea, 

 which I think rather doubtful, we cannot but suppose that they have come there from the 

 Pacific, where at least Ptilota asplenoides is widely distributed and grows in great 

 abundancy at several places. The direction of the currents between these two seas 

 does not favour the importation of algae into the Siberian Sea; it is more favourable 

 for an immigration into the western part of the American Arctic Sea. However, this 

 sea is as yet very little known with regard to its algology. Nevertheless, among the 

 species reported from there, there is one that may be assumed, on good grounds, to 

 have immigrated from the south, namely Rhodomela Larix, which is extensively spread 

 in the Pacific and common even in the northern part of the Behring Sea. 



Whoever visits the coasts of Spitzbergen, cannot but notice the objects of different 

 kinds washed ashore, a great part of which have apparently been carried there from 

 the south, from the coast of Norway. At some parts of the coast they are more rare, 

 at others they are to be found in very large masses. Nordenskiold relates, for instance, 

 that at one place on the coast of Spitzbergen pieces of pumice were found in so great 

 quantities that a small sack could be filled with them. Many of these objects, as floats 

 of tree, glass, and cork a. o., are of such a nature that algag, at least smaller ones, 

 can germinate on them, and in the earlies stages of their development be brought by 

 means of them from the coasts of Norway to the North ^). Larger algae may be trans- 

 ferred floating on the water by the Gulf Stream. Thus it seems as if the marine Flora 

 of Spitzbergen might be expected to comprise a rather considerable number of southern 

 algae, immigrated from the north-west and north coasts of Norway at later times. This 

 however is not the case. By far most elements of the Spitzbergen Flora have at pre- 

 sent such a geographical distribution that they must be considered to have their proper 

 home in the Arct ic Sea. I have thought fit to call attention to these facts, because 



^J Cp. J. G. Agardh, Gronl. Lamin. och Puc, p. 7. 

 -) Cp. Nordenskiold, Spetsb.-exp., p. 39 — 41. 



