LINDSAY, ON THE PROTOPHYTA OF ICELAND, 203 
they are throughout Europe, including Scandinavia and 
Britain ; and yet so recently as 1861 the Flora of Iceland 
contained, and apparently still contains, only three species of 
Nostoc representing the Nostochacee; three species of the 
Oscillariacee ; two of the Rivulariacee ; three of the Zygnema- 
cee; nine of the Confervacee ; and none of the Siphonee, 
Batrachosphermee, or Hydrodictyee.* 
I feel assured that these figures represent only the merest 
fraction of the Chlorospermous Alge@ of Iceland, and that, in- 
deed, this department of the Icelandic Flora remains as yet 
virtually unexplored. 
The freshwater Algze are, however, much more difficult to 
preserve in a proper condition for determination than the 
Diatomacee, whose siliceous skeletons or cases effectually 
protect them for all time. The freshwater Alge, and espe- 
cially the Confervacee, I brought from Iceland in 1860 were 
found, on unpacking them at no long interval, in a state quite 
unsuited for identification by the most experienced algolo- 
gists; and similar was my experience in regard to my New 
Zealand collections of the same group of organisms in 1861.t 
These delicate groups of Algz should, indeed, either be exa- 
mined on the spot, or be preserved with special care. No 
doubt it is owing to this difficulty in preserving them that so 
little, comparatively, is known of this interesting and large 
group of Algz in such countries as Iceland and New Zea- 
land. 
My ‘ Flora’ of 1861 further shows that the Fungi—espe- 
cially the lower orders—are almost equally comparatively 
unknown in Iceland ; and to a certain extent the remarks just 
made in regard to difficulty of preservation, and the desira- 
bility of study on the spot, in the living or fresh. condition of 
the plants, apply equally to the Icelandic Fungi. The result 
of my New Zealand collections in 1861 was that, as in the 
case of the Chlorospermous Algz, there was a large proportion 
of genera and species unfit for determination. } 
* Among the immense number of species constituting his Phycochromacea, 
Rabenhorst so lately as 1865 gives not a single Icelandic citation! 
+ “On New Zealand d/gz.” ‘Trans. Botan. Society of Edin.,’ vol. vili, 
p- 420. 
t “On New Zealand Fungi.” ‘Trans. Botan. Society of Kdin.,’ vol. ix, 
p- 13. 
