2 ANTONY GEPP AND ETHEL S. GEPP. 



A small plant of Zonaria was found, whicli is too young to identify ; but it is 

 interesting as the first record of this genus from the South Polar regions. 



Desmarestia harveyana (D. media of the Flora Antarctica) appears to have been 

 abundant, and a specimen of over six feet in length has been brought home in the 

 collection. 



Phyllophora antarctica is the Antarctic congener of the northern species 

 P. interrupta. 



Spongoclonium orthocladum is a new species, allied to S. hirtum [Callithamnion 

 hirtum of the Flora Antarctica). 



The conditions of life that control the algal flora at both poles are peculiar, 

 and are not easily realised by those who have never visited the polar regions. The 

 two totally distinct seasons — on the one hand, the prolonged winter night, together 

 with the impenetrable crust of ice that effectually cuts off" the sea from contact with 

 the gases of the atmosphere sometimes for years, the increasing salinity of the water, 

 due to the rejection of salt during the formation of the deep layers of ice, the 

 equable, low temperature of the denser, deeper waters below the ice ; on the other hand, 

 the long summer day, accompanied by the breaking of the ice and melting of the 

 ice and snow, the layer of fresher water on the surface, which slowly mingles with 

 the sea-water below, the renewed absorption of atmospheric gases, the assimilation of 

 carbonic acid excreted by the animals living there — these and other factors must 

 profoundly influence and modify algal life and development ; and data concerning 

 the effect of these conditions upon algse have yet to be accumulated. 



A critical comparison of the marine floras of the two Polar regions should bring 

 out points of great interest ; and a fair field in this respect lies open to that expedition 

 which is the last to publish the report of its collection of marine algse. Any attempt 

 to draw up such a comparison now would necessarily be premature and incomplete. 

 We await with interest the publication of the results of the other expeditions, in 

 the hope that they may yield a more complete representation of the algal flora 

 peculiar to the Antarctic region, and that incidentally they may throw light upon 

 those points which we are compelled to leave in obscurity. 



PH^OPHYCE^. 



1. Zonaria sp. 



Off" Cape Wadsworth, Coulman Island. 



A small, immature plant, 2 cm. high, the thallus of which is still monostromatic 

 throughout. Though unable to name the species, we think it worth while to include 

 the plant in our list, as the genus has not yet been recorded from the far South. 

 Zonaria is here used in its old and wide sense, as the specimen is too fragmentary to 

 admit of further classification. 



