34 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



The botanical name of the Red Snow plant is Sphaerella 

 nivalis, taking the first part from its spherical shape, and the 

 second from the snow in which it g-rows. An individual plant 

 is so minute that it is visible only under the miscroscope, but 

 the innumerable millions of these tiny red globules suffice to 

 manifest their color over large tracts of snow. It is of the 

 Algae family, a name which naturally suggests to the mind the 

 delicate sea mosses which grow on the rocks at the coast, the 

 kelp that is cast upon the beach, or the green scums which 

 mantle the surface of fresh water pools. In point of fact the 

 family to one of the largest of all, and comprehends a wonder- 

 fully varied series of plants. Many, like the red snow plant, 

 are microscopic in size, but at the other extreme are the gi- 

 gantic sea weeds of the Sargasso sea, taller, or perhaps one 

 should say longer, than the loftiest Sequoias of the California 

 mountains. Some grow in the most unexpected places, as on 

 or in animals, on other plants, on glass, iron, dry rocks, as 

 well as in fresh or salt water. As for temperature no other 

 living organization can endure such extremes. The 

 Sphaerella flourishes in the perpetual snow and ice of the Arc- 

 tic zone, while at the Arrowhead Hotsprings there is an alga 

 growing in water in which one can boil an egg. In antiquity 

 of origin it stands first, for there is every reason to believe that 

 the earliest life which appeared on the slowly cooling earth 

 must have been a minute green alga. 



The red snow plant leads a hard life. It occupies only 

 the upper crust of the snow, and to live, it, like all plants, must 

 have water, food and sunlight. So during the nights of the 

 long Arctic winter it remains dormant, but the summer 

 awakens it, with all nature, to activity. Then, even in the 

 coldest regions, the sun's rays liquify a thin film of water on 

 the icy surface, or between the granules of snow. This ice- 

 cold water, and the atmospheric dust which has settled in it, 

 supply to the minute plants their necessary nutriment. They 

 flourish, and multiply by the production of minute spherical 



