2
THE MARINE ALGAE OF ESSEX.
"British Marine Algae," added to the notes scattered through the
volumes of The Essex Naturalist, complete the published
records of the Marine Algae of the county.
The present list is principally based on the important collection
of "Seaweeds of Harwich and District," gathered by Mr. G. P.
Hope, and presented by him to the Museum of the Essex Field
Club. This valuable collection contains about 230 separate speci-
mens belonging to 59 genera and 81 species. The specimens are
well preserved and neatly mounted on cardboard, and in most cases
are accompanied by drawings of magnified portions of the frond or
fructification. It is well to note, however, that most of these draw-
ings have been copied from Harvey's "Phycologia Britannica," and
may, in some cases I fear, be a source of confusion; for instance,
the drawing accompanying the specimen of Ceramium flabelligerum
is taken from Harvey's figures of Ceramium acanthonotum ("Phyc.
Brit.," plate cxl., figs. 3 and 4), the species to which Mr. Hope
supposed his plant to belong. Where the drawings have been made
from the plants themselves they are useful in identifying the species,
besides being ornamental, and add greatly to the interest of the
collection.
In addition to the Hope collection, I have examined a collection
of Marine Algae from Felixstowe,2 made by Mr. G. Massee, who very
kindly placed them at my disposal. I have also examined the
Herbarium of the British Museum for Essex localities, but without
much success. I have to thank Mr. T. H. Buffham for kindly furni-
shing me with the Essex localities from his collection, and Mr.
W. Cole for placing his Essex specimens at my disposal. A careful
search through my own Herbarium and note-books has resulted in
adding between twenty and thirty species, not included in any of the
other collections, to the list of Essex Marine Alga;.
So far as is known at present, the marine flora of Essex consists
of 152 species, included in 93 genera, and is marked as much by
the absence of many species common and abundant elsewhere as by
the presence of a few which are very rarely met with on the shores
of our islands. As examples of the latter class, Ectocarpus erectus,
Phyllitis filiformis, Scinaia furcellata, and Grateloupia filicina may
be mentioned, while as examples of the former Calothrix confervicola,
2 The records of localities of Essex Marine Algae are so scanty, and Essex specimens in public
Herbaria so few, that I have thought it advisable to include in this list species which grow a short
distance beyond the boundaries of the county of Essex, more especially those found at Felixstowe,
which is at least within the jurisdiction of the Harwich Harbour Board, This, I think, is allow-
able in dealing with a marine flora of a county where most of the Algae found are water-borne.