The Scottish Naturalist. 123 



and I shall be very glad indeed to carefully examine any samples 

 which may be entrusted to my care. Of course, it would be well 

 to collect as far from the margins of the wreaths as possible. 

 The samples collected should be put in a small bottle, or preserved 

 in some other way that would keep them moist. 



Red Snoiv has long been well known to Arctic voyagers. The 

 first notice I find of it is by John Davis, who saw it on August 6th, 

 1585, in the Straits which bear his name. He says of Mount 

 Raleigh: — "The cliffs whereof were as orient as gold." This is 

 recorded in Hakluyt "Voyages," Vol. III., p. 101. Frederick. 

 Martens observed it in Spitzbergen in 167 1. The nature of it 

 was investigated by De Saussure in the Alps of Savoy in 1760. 

 In 1778, it was observed at St. Bernard. It is recorded by 

 Captain Ross from the West Coast of Greenland, at 75 57' N.L., 

 in immense quantities , so much so, that a place there got the 

 name of " Crimson Cliffs." He also found that it penetrated the 

 snow to a considerable depth. Robert Brown, in the Appendix 

 to Captain Ross's " Voyages of Discovery," gave it a place among 

 algae. Some botanists thought it a fungus. Baron F. A. Wrangel 

 called it Uredo nivalis. Lichtenstein thought it was a zoophyte ; 

 and both he and others believed that it fell from the sky. C. A. 

 Agardh assigned it to the genus Protococcus, with Bauer's specific 

 name nivalis. Agardh also gave it the very appropriate popular 

 name Snoens blonima, flower of the snoiv. Shuttleworth observed 

 it in 1839 on the Grimsel in the Bernese Alps; and Carl Vogt 

 saw it in the same region in 1840. He looked upon it as an 

 Infusorian, and gave it the name of Discercca nivalis. Passing 

 over several names, we find Perty, in 1852, describing it under the 

 name of Hysginum nivalis, with a leaning towards a belief in its 

 being an animal. 



It might be mentioned that Captain Parry in 1827 found it as 

 far north as 82 N., far to the north of Spitzbergen. In 1838, 

 however, Martius and Bravais, of the French Expedition to 

 Spitzbergen, besides the well-known red snow, discovered green 

 snow. Then W. P. Schimper, the well-known bryologist, dis- 

 covered green snow on the Grimsel in the Swiss Alps, from the 

 2o-3oth August, 1848. It is also believed to have been observed 

 on the coast of Greenland by Scoresby. 



In 1822, Sommerfelt gathered the red snow on Solvaagtinden 

 in Nordland, at a height of 3000 ft. above sea-level. He gave 



