PACIFIC EXPLORATION: W. G. FARLOW 
425 
the species which inhabit the islands of different groups. It may be 
well therefore to give a general review of what we know from previous 
explorations of the different portions of the Pacific and at the same time 
to distinguish between those regions whose marine flora is now being 
studied successfully either by native algologists or by already organized 
bodies of collectors and explorers and those regions which are still in 
need of exploration by some specially organized expedition. 
In this connection what is said must be understood to apply to the 
alga flora proper which is littoral and does not extend to any great depth 
and of which very few or no representatives are to be expected in deep 
soundings. In regard to the pelagic or plankton flora it may be as- 
sumed that no expedition would fail to make collections wherever and 
whenever possible. 
Our knowledge of the algae of the Pacific has been obtained in part 
from the collections of the earHer national expeditions, few of which 
were accompanied by expert algologists, or from collections of a more 
recent date made by a very small number of residents of different islands 
who were interested in algae and by botanical travellers stopping for 
brief periods on their journeys across the Pacific. Islands lying on the 
trades routes have naturally been more frequently explored than others. 
In the earher expeditions, even those whose object was ostensibly the 
exploration of the Pacific, we notice that the greater part of the time was 
spent in exploring the outlying islands as Hawaii, Japan, and New 
Zealand. In the Wilkes Expedition, which may be taken as a type of the 
old national expeditions, the algae collected were largely from Brazil, 
the West Coast of America, New South Wales and New Zealand, while 
hardly fifty species were obtained at Hawaii, the Fiji Islands and Tong- 
atabu, with half a dozen, not including Diatoms, from the Philippines. 
In the majority of expeditions Hawaii, the Fiji Islands, and the Friendly 
Islands, were visited. Our knowledge of the Eastern Polynesian groups, 
as the Society Islands, the Marquesas Islands, and the Low Archipelago 
is derived largely from the early French expeditions, as that of the Bonite, 
that of D'Urville, Au Pol Sud, and that of Jardin to the Marquesas. 
Tahiti, however, was visited by numerous expeditions and it has been 
a favorite resort of botanical travellers in recent years. On the other 
hand, of such remote, small islands, as Pitcairn's and the Gambler 
Islands we have only the scantiest information. We are not to assume, 
however, that because very little has been found on the smaller islands 
that there is not much more which may be found. 
The Hawaiian Islands have been visited by more expeditions than 
any other of the Pacific Islands, and their marine flora has lately 
