131 
obtained, the idea of preserving dried plants must have occurred to 
several botanists at the same time; and it seems to be useless to dis- 
cuss at length the question as to whether the inventor of the forming 
of herbaria was Luca Ghini, as maintained by Meyer in his Geschichte 
der Botanik, or the Englishman Falconer, as thought by Messrs. 
Camus and Penzig. In fact, said Dr. Saint-Lager, the Lyonais surgeon 
Greault formed a herbarium at the same period as did Ghini and 
Falconer, and without having been in communication with them. It 
is probable that other botanists likewise have simultaneously carried 
out the very legitimate desire of preserving in their library those 
plants which they had taken so much pleasure in gathering in a living 
state. The difificulty did not consist in conceiving of the idea of 
collecting dried and pressed plants together into a volume, for that 
is child's-play, but rather in finding a convenient and cheap mounting 
material. 
V 
Botanical Notes- 
Red SnoTJLK — At a recent meeting of the Biological Society of 
Washington, Mr. Romyn Hitchcock, of the National Museum, read 
a paper on Red Snow, and exhibited through the microscope speci- 
mens of the brilliant, minute, crimson globules which give color to the 
spow, and about the character of which there has been considerable 
difference of opinion among naturalists, Mr. Hitchcock remarked 
that the red snow that attracted much attention from scientific 
gentlemen when it was brought home from the Arctic regions by 
Capt. Ross, in the year i8t8, was by no means unknown before that 
time, De Saussure, as early as 1760, observed it on Mount Breven, 
in Switzerland, and since then many others have noticed it in the 
Alps and Pyrenees, and it seems to occur frequently in all parts of the 
world. Particular interest, however, was manifested in the material 
brought home by Capt. Ross, and several botanists secured speci- 
mens for examination, and, among these, Mr. Francis Bauer, who 
thought the plant a Uredo, and named it U. nivalis. Baron Wrangel 
regarded the plant as a lichen, and gave it the name of Lepraria 
Ker??iesina, 
In the latest literature of algie the plant is classed as a Chlamydo- 
cocctis. Until the method of propagation of this plant is more satis- 
factorily established, Mr. Hitchcock thinks it will be impossible to fix 
its systematic position. It is not improbable that in its actively vege- 
tating condition the plant is green. This is indicated by the obser- 
vations of early discoverers. 
A specimen of the red snow collected by Dr. Kane from the 
crimson cliffs of Beverley is in the National Museum, but is now 
thoroughly dry. 
A specimen sent by Mr. Alexander McDougall was received in 
January of this year from Poverty Gulch, Col. 
Mr. Hitchcock made a few observations on this and attempted 
to cultivate some of the cells, but without success. The cells were 
of a bright red color, sometimes apparently quite naked, but fre- 
quently enclosed singly or three or more together, in a colorless, 
shrivelled envelope. 
