PieW YORK 



^iOTANICAk 



General Remarks. 



With regard to algae, South Al'rica — as well as all Ihe rest of 

 Ihis contineiit — is rather incomplelely known, The most nionien- 

 lous contributions to our present knowledge of the freshwater 

 algae here are of comparatively recent date, viz. Fritsch, A First 

 Report on the Freshwater Algae, mostly from the Cape Peninsula 

 (Amials of the South African Museum, Vol. IX, 1918). As the aulhor 

 here mentions the few earlier works treatmg of the algal vege- 

 tation of South Africa, I need in the present case only refer to this 

 treatise.') All these earlier works, however, only deal with tlie 

 freshwater algae, the true sul3aérial algae being totally left out of 

 oonsideration, and thus the subaérial algae of this continent have 

 been absolutely unknown till noW'. Our knowledge of the subaérial 

 algae of the southern hemisphere is, on tlie whole, extremely scanty, 

 and exceptmg one family only, the Trentepohliaceae — wdiich has 

 been examined by various investigators as Schmidle, Karsten, 

 DE Wii.DEMAN, and some others — our knowledge of the 

 subaérial algae of the southem hemisphere is very sparse andj 

 accidental. 



Under these circumstances it was with particular interest I 

 undertook the exammation of quite a considerable collection of sub- 

 aérial algae in the possession of the Botanical Museum of Kristiania. 

 This collection — 403 samples in all — chieil}^ oonsisted of pieces of 

 bark, samples of wood, and the like, coillected for the Boitanical 

 Museum by Ørjan Olsen, lecturer on zoology at the University 

 of Kristiania, during a sojourn in South Africa in tlie years 1912 — 

 1913, The collection was made party in the environs of Durban, 

 on the east coast, in the period Oct. 24th — Nov. 17tli,1912, partly on 

 the west coast, in the environs of S a 1 d a n h a Bay, in the 

 period March lOth— 19th, 1913. 



A list of the samples follows below: 

 No. 1—10. Glose by the shore, at the South African 

 Whaling Company's station, Biluff, Dur- 

 ban, in dmse wood, Oct. 24th, 1912 



1) While tilis paper was being printed, Fritsch together with Miss 

 E. Stephens pubiislied a new contribution to our l^nowledge of the 

 t'resliwater algae of Africa: Freshwater Algae (exclusive of Diatoms), 

 mainly from tlie Transkei Territories, Cape Colony. (Transactions of 

 the Royal Society of South Africa, Vol. IX, Cape Town 1921). I mention 

 the atiove work in this way for the sake of completeness. 



