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SOME NEW OR LESS KNOWN DESMIDS FOUND IN 

 NEW SOUTH WALES. 



By G. I. Playfaik. 



(Communicated by the Secretary,) 

 (Plates ii.-v.) 



Only two contributions to a knowledge of the Desmidioi of 

 New South Wales are known to me. Dr. Otto Nordstedt in his 

 "Freshwater Algseof New Zealand and Australia" gives a list of 

 nine species collected on the Blue Mountains hy Dr. S. Berggren. 

 And Dr. M. Raciborski in " Desmidya zebrane przez Dr. E. 

 Ciastonia " accounts for seventy-seven species gathered by Dr. 

 Ciastonia in the Centennial Park, Sydney, in 1891. 



During the past fourteen years in which I have studied the 

 Desmids of New South Wales, I have been able to search only 

 three districts, viz., Collector at the northern end of Lake George; 

 Moura, a private estate near Parkes; and some of the suburbs of 

 Sydney My experience harmonises with a remark of Mr. W. B. 

 Turner in his "Freshwater Algse of E. India" that "From results 

 obtained by many observers it appears that the value of gather- 

 ings is often in inverse ratio to the extent of country examined." 



The number of species from New South Wales figured to date 

 staads at about 350, a very fair total when it is remembered that 

 only 412 forms are mentioned by Dr. Cooke in his 'British 

 Desmids.' Of these 350, 50 are doubtful or require farther 

 investigation, 230 have been definitely identified, and the remain- 

 ing 70 form the subject of this paper. After most careful con- 

 sideration, fifty of these are described as new, and also twenty 

 varieties and forms of species previously described by other 

 observers. About one-third of these stand to the credit of 



