4 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



ance of the flora is still unmistakably arctic, if we except a few shel- 

 tered localities. The northern shore of Cape Cod, from its sandy charac- 

 ter, is practically destitute of all species of algae, except a few forms which 

 are here and there found growing on the eel-grass. As soon as we pass 

 to the south of Cape Cod, however, the flora assumes an entirely different 

 aspect. The arctic and Northern European forms have disappeared, ex- 

 cept at a few exposed points like Gay Head and Montauk, and, in their 

 place, we find a number of species, asDasya elegans, Rhabdonia tenera, 

 Chondria tenuissima, Sargassum vulgare, characteristic of warmer seas. 



The Long Island flora, which may be said to extend from Cape Cod to 

 New Jersey, has a good deal in common with the northern part of the 

 Adriatic. Among the more abundant species are Basya elegans, Poly- 

 siphonia variegata, and, if we accept Zanardini's view, our common 

 Chondria Baileyana and Lomentaria Baileyana are identical with C. 

 striolata and L. uncinata, all species common near Venice. From New 

 Jersey to Charleston, if we except Norfolk and one or two points on the 

 North Carolina coast, almost no sea-weeds are known, presumably on 

 account of the unfavorable nature of the shore, although, it must be 

 confessed, the coast has never been carefully explored. Even with 

 regard to the coast of New Jersey we have but little information. A 

 number of Floridece, usually growing attached to eel-grass, has been 

 reported from Beesley's Point by Samuel Ashmead,* but it is almost 

 certain that southward from that point, very little is to be expected. 



It will be seen that Cape Cod is the dividing line between a marked 

 northern and a southern flora. In fact, the difference between the florae 

 of Massachusetts Bay and Buzzards Bay, which are only a few miles 

 apart, is greater than the difference between those of Massachusetts Bay 

 and the Bay of Fundy, or between those of Nantucket and Norfolk. 

 This difference in the flora corresponds precisely with what is known of 

 the fauna. That Cape Cod formed a dividing line was known to Har- 

 vey, and subsequent observation has only shown, on the one hand, 

 that the flora north of Cape Cod is more decidedly arctic than he sup- 

 posed, and that, on the other hand, south of the cape it is more de- 

 cidedly that of warm seas. The general fact of the distinctness of 

 the two florae is not weakened by the knowledge that we now possess, 

 owing to the investigations of the Fish Commission, of the existence in 

 a few sheltered localities north of Cape Cod of some of the character- 

 istic species of Long Island Sound, and in a few exposed spots south of 

 the cape of northern species. Of the more common species found along 

 the whole coast of New England, by far the greater part are also com- 

 mon in Europe, as Belesseria sinuosa, Corallina officinalis, Hildenbrandtia 

 rosea, Polysiphonia violacea, P. fastigiata, P. nigreseens, P. urceolata, 

 BJiodymenia palmata, Chondrus crispus, Cystoclonium purpurascens, AJm- 

 feltia plicata, Phyllophora Brodimi, P. membranifolia, Polyides rotundtis, 

 Ceramium rubrum, Ptilota elegans, Leathesia tuber if ormis, Chordaria fla- 



* Fid. Proceed. Acad. Nat. Sci., Philadelphia, vol vi, p. 147, vol. x, p. 8. 



