146 ROMANCE OF LOW LIFE AMONGST PLANTS. 



compared with their diameter, with rounded extremi- 

 ties ; and when immersed some Httle time in fluid so 

 that the contained air-bubbles make their escape or 

 are taken up, the pale colouring matter appears to 

 fill the cells completely, and a central portion, a little 

 darker than the rest, may be distinctly perceived in 

 each compartment, intersected by a very delicate 

 tranverse partition." ^ 



Red Snow. 



Coloured snow-storms were recorded as long- ao-o 

 as the sixth century, and a shower of red hail was 

 mentioned by Humboldt as occurring at Palermo. 

 It is believed that De Saussure first noticed in 

 Europe the red snow, in 1760, on Mount Breven in 

 Switzerland, and subsequently so frequently amongst 

 the Alps, that he was surprised that it should have 

 escaped notice by all previous travellers. Ramond 

 found it in the Pyrenees, and Sommerfeldt in Norway. 

 In 18 18 an Italian journal contains an account of the 

 fall of red snow in the Italian Alps and on the Apen- 

 nines. In March, 1808, the whole country around 

 Cardoce, Belluno, and P>ltri was covered in one nioht 

 to the depth of nearly ten inches, it is said, with a 

 rose-coloured snow. A pure white snow fell before 

 and afterwards, so that the coloured snow formed an 

 intermediate stratum. A like phenomenon occurred 

 at the same time on the mountains of Veltelin, 

 Brescia, Krain, and Tyrol. A similar one occurred 

 at Tolmezzo, in the Friaul, between the 5th and 6th 



' Proceedings of the Royal Society, Feb. 36, 1857; Annals of Natural 

 History (May, 1857), vol, xix. p. 431. 



