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NOTES ON ALGAE COLLECTED IN 1911. 



By James Burton. 

 {Read January 2'ird, 1912.) 



I SUPPOSE if it were possible to achieve the ideal in speaking of 

 any of the various classes of natural objects which interest us, 

 one would bring forward a more or less lengthy list of new species, 

 all accurately described, named and labelled. No doubt new 

 species are dear to all of us, but very little consideration and quite 

 a small amount of experience convince most that such a delightful 

 consummation is not likely to fall to the lot of many, and that, 

 rather, we may be duly thankful and contented to have come 

 across during the season, a few examples new to us only by 

 reason of our not having found them previously, and that we 

 can find ready named and described in some of the books written 

 by masters in whatever department may happen to be of interest 

 to us. Such is all the result I dare to hope for and all I can 

 offer you in this short paper. 



I wish to speak of some of the Algae collected by myself in 

 1911, especially those exhibiting the phenomena known as the 

 *' breaking of the meres." This expression or its equivalent is 

 quite well known in some districts and in places abroad, and is 

 ordinarily used in Shropshire, for example to express that con- 

 dition of the lakes and other bodies of water, when they are so 

 permeated with one or more species of Algae as to lose their 

 transparency and to assume the colour of the organism which 

 is so plentiful in them. Angling, for the time during which 

 the condition exists, has usually to be given up, as the fish refuse 

 to bite, and in extreme cases the water is injurious or even 

 poisonous to animals drinking it. The first instance I noticed 



JouRN. Q. M. C, Series II. No. 70. 29 



