

FEESHWATEE 



By F. E. FRITSCH, D.Sc., PH.D., F.L.S., 



r>-nfct<xor of lint, i ii ;/, /v/.v/ London College ( /'////r/W/y of London}. 



(3 Plates.) 

 .1. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



UNTIL recently our knowledge of the freshwater Algal flora of the Antarctic has been 

 very deficient, but in the last decade the numerous expeditions that have undertaken 

 the exploration of this region of the earth have brought back collections which are 

 materially adding to the meagre earlier records. Apart from the few older 

 contributions, which arc cited in my paper on the Algae of the South Orkneys,* we 

 have all within the last ten years communications by De Wildemanj and 

 Van HeurckJ on the Algse of the Belgian Antarctic Expedition; by Wille and 

 Holmboe || on Algse collected by Borchgrevink at Cape Adare ; by the present writer * 

 on the Algee of the South Orkneys, and by W. and G. S. West^j on the Algae 

 collected by Sir E. Shackleton's Expedition in the vicinity of Ross Island and South 

 Victoria Land. Quite recently L. Gain ** has described two species of Nostoc from 

 the Antarctic (' lie Jenny '), and speaks of having recognised twenty species of 

 Algse (mainly C'yanophycese and Desmids) growing among mosses. 



The collections of the British National Antarctic Expedition were made in the 

 vicinity of Cape Adare (lat. 71 S.), and in the region around MeMurdo Strait 

 (lat, nearly 78 S.), i.e. in a latitude appreciably farther south than that of the South 

 Orkneys, and this may explain the rather different aspect of the flora in the two 

 cases referred to below (cf. Table on p. G). The two collections have relatively few 



* F. E. Fritech, "Freshwater Algfe, coll. in the S. Orkneys by Mr. Ii. X. Rudmose Brown of the Scottish 

 National Antarctic Expedition." Journ. Linn. Soc., xl. (1912), pp. 293-338, Pis. 10 and 11. 



t E. de Wildeman, " Note pn'liminaire sur les Algucs rapportees par M. E. Racovitza, naturaliste de 

 lYxprdition antarctique beige." null. Acad. Roy. Belg. 1900, pp. 558-569. 



J Van Heurck, " Diatomues " in " Ri'sultats du voyage du 8.Y. ' Belgica ' en 1897-99." Antwerp (1909), 

 pp. 1-128, Pis. I.-XIII. 



N. Wille, " Mittcilungen fiber einige von C. E. Borchgrevink auf dera antarktischen Festlaude gesammelte 

 Pflanzen," Hi., " Anturktische Algen." Nyt Mag. f. Naturvidenskab. xl. (1902), pp. 209-221, Tab. III., IV. 



|| J. Holmboe, iv., " Ntn-i<-ul,t inn/ic.i Kiitz. aus dem antarktischen Festlande," ir. N. Wills, Mitteilungen, 

 etc.," 02>. cil.. pp. 221-222. 



f W. "West and G. S. West, " Freshwater Alg;r," in Reports on the Scientific Investigations, British 

 Antarctic Expedition, 1907-9, vol. i., Tart vn., London (1911), pp. 263-298, Pis. XXIV.-XXVI. 



** L. Gain, " Deux especes uouvelles de Nvstoc provenant du l;i region antarctiqne sndamericaine." Comptes 

 Rendus Ac., Paris, clii. (1911), pp. 1691-1694. 



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