176 THE BOTANICAL MAGAZINE. [Vol. xxxn. No. sso. 



on the north-eastern coasts still greater number of the North 

 Pacific forms. This is undoubtedly due to the influence of the 

 branch of the North Equatorial Current, i.e., the Black Current, 

 and the Behring Current on the said regions respectively. 



Most of the European algologists who have touched to the 

 North Pacific algae were in the attitude to treat them separate 

 from, or as less related to, the Atlantic members. Some of 

 them went so far as to claim a new specific position for an alga 

 which is hardly different from an European species, merely by 

 its very far distant locality. Another was inclined to describe 

 one and the same plant in separate specific positions as the 

 localities differed. It is natural for them to regard the marine 

 flora of Japan to be quite isolated from that of Europe. Most 

 of the species hitherto reported from Europe and Japan in 

 common have been taken as cosmopolitic. 



Botanists always notice that there are number of syno- 

 nyms for the European marine algae. The synonyms might 

 have been multiplied by the gradual changes of the generic 

 limitations or conceptions. But there are many which have 

 been the results of combinations of more than two specific 

 names into one. They have continuously ascertained that mere 

 superficial variations of a plant, due to the ages, localities or 

 sexes, have been described as separate species. The increase 

 of the synonyms from such circumstances is a result of more 

 extended researches on ample material or of careful observa- 

 tions in the field, in a word, a progress of science. 



The extra-European species of the algae, especially of the 

 Pacific, have mostly a few or no synonyms, This may be of- 

 course due to the fact that they are described after the generic 

 limitations of the algae have been fixed as they now stand. 

 But I do not hesitate to say that it is also due to the incom- 

 plete material on which the species have been described, eventu- 

 ally entertaining too much multiplication of the species. An 

 actual example of this is in the Fucaceous algae of Japan. The 

 species of Sargassum assigned to Japan, reported and described 

 by the European algologists, numbered as many as 39. On 

 studying them carefully on ample material collected at various 



