31S 



•' I found that every pool or stream was full of them and Infusoria, and even the 

 Scytonema that covered the rocks several hundred feet above the hospice, and over 

 which the snow-water trickled, served as the habitation or matrix of Synedra lunaris, 

 Ehrenh. (Exilaria, Auct.) a true Diatomea." — p. 54. 



The author enumerates many of the species found here, several of 

 which were quite new : he also details the results of an examination 

 of " the Red snow quite fresh^'' which, to his astonishment, he found 

 composed of Protococcus nivalis {Ag. not Grev,), P. nebulosus, Kutz, 

 three or four deep red and two uncoloured Infusoria ; " the Infusoria 

 were endowed with the most astonishing activity of motion." 



" The coloured snow was collected in a bucket, and then allowed to melt, when the 

 colouring matter was deposited, and immediately examined; but hardly had the wa- 

 ter acquired the temperature of the air, than all life ceased, and the Alga was only to 

 be distinguished from the Infusoria, by its greater transparency and lighter colour. 

 The proportion of the Alga (Protococcus nivalis) to the Infusoria was about 5 or 6 to 

 1000 of the latter. That this is always the case I do not believe, as Haematococcus 

 Noltii is always mixed with a brown Stentor, which latter varies in its proportion much. 

 The Protococcus nivalis of the Grimsel is the same plant as that figured by Agardh, 

 in the ' Icones Alg. Europ.' tab. 21, f. a. The sporules, or rather the contents of the 

 plant, are merely grumose, and the granules are so small, as to be even inconspicuous 

 with a power of 300 diameters, whereas in Hamatococcus Noltii (to which your spe- 

 cies of red snow is closely allied) the granules are large, and few in number. The 

 Protococcus nebulosus, Kutz., is a simple, very small, grey or uncoloured globule, 

 which abounds everywhere, and as, from mechanical causes, it is attracted round the 

 globules of red snow (Alga and Infusoria), it is certainly the cause of the gelatinous 

 appearance of the substratum, described and figured by many authors, which however 

 does not exist in our Swiss plant. The colouring matter of the red snow extends to 

 the depth of eight inches at least below the surface; it is only found on old snow of 

 some years standing probably, and only developes itself during warm weather and a 

 southerly wind. This snow is also always more or less covered with minute particles 

 of humus; and I regret that the state of the weather did not permit me to examine 

 the humus immediately below the snow.'' — p. 55. 



There is also a reference to a paper by Mr. Shuttleworth published 

 in the ' Bibliotheque Universelle de Geneve,' Feb. 1840. 



Exhibited, by Mr. W. C. Trevelyan,'a series of varieties of Scolo- 

 pendrium vulgare, gathered at Auchmithie in Forfarshire. I'he most 

 frequent form is that with a simply bifid termination ; one specimen 

 is three-cleft ; in others the midrib being divided near the base "forms 

 a frond with two branches, nearly at right angles with each other ;" in 

 another specimen the frond is much branched at the extremity ; then 

 again some have a rounded termination, the midrib not reaching to the 

 end, and other fronds have a circular form ; the edges of some fronds 



