JOURNAL 



OF THE 



Elislia Mitchell Scientific Society 



NORTH CAROLINA DESMIDS— A PRELIMINARY 



LIST. 



W. L. POTEAT. 



When one considers the acknowledged richness of the flora of 

 North Carolina, it seems not a little strange that this peculiarly 

 interesting family of plants should have been so completely neg- 

 lected both by native and by visiting botanists. In the second 

 volume of the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge may be 

 found Professor J. W. Bailey's " Microscopical Observations 

 made in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida," published in 

 1851 ; but these notes contain no reference to North Carolina. 

 With the poor exception of two or three species of Vauclwria 

 reported from this State by v. Schweinitz, and a few other Algae 

 by Curtis (1860), the great group of Fresh-water Algae as now 

 known to the world contains no North Carolina representatives. 

 And, if the view be restricted to the particular family that con- 

 cerns us here, so far as I have been able to learn the record is a 

 complete blank. 



Moved partly by this consideration, for a few months past I 

 have been engaged, as my limited leisure afforded opportunity, 

 upon the determination of the species of Desmids found in the 

 vicinity of Wake Forest, and some of the results of this work 

 are presented below. The list is far from being exhaustive of 



