FEESHWATEE 



By F. E. FRITSCH, D.Sc., PH.D., F.L.S., 

 Professor of Botany, East London College ( University of London). 



(3 Plates.) 

 A. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



UNTIL recently our knowledge of the freshwater Algal flora of the Antarctic has been 

 very deficient, but in the last decade the numerous expeditions that have undertaken 

 the exploration of this region of the earth have brought back collections which are 

 materially adding to the meagre earlier records. Apart from the few older 

 contributions, which are cited in my paper on the Algae of the South Orkneys,* we 

 have all within the last ten years communications by De Wildemanf and 

 Van Heurck J on the Algse of the Belgian Antarctic Expedition ; by Wille and 

 Holmboe || on Algse collected by Borchgrevink at Cape Adare ; by the present writer * 

 on the Algse of the South Orkneys, and by W. and G. S. West^j on the Algse 

 collected by Sir E. Shackleton's Expedition in the vicinity of Ross Island and South 

 Victoria Land. Quite recently L. Gain ** has described two species of Nostoc from 

 the Antarctic ('lie Jenny'), and speaks of having recognised twenty species of 

 Algse (mainly Cyanophycese and Desmids) growing among mosses. 



The collections of the British National Antarctic Expedition were made in the 

 vicinity of Cape Adare (lat. 71 S.), and in the region around McMurdo Strait 

 (lat. nearly 78 S.), i.e. in a latitude appreciably farther south than that of the South 

 Orkneys, and this may explain the rather different aspect of the flora in the two 

 cases referred to below (cf. Table on p. 6). The two collections have relatively few 



* F. E. Fritech, " Freshwater Algse, coll. in the S. Orkneys by Mr. R. N. Budmose Brown of the Scottish 

 National Antarctic Expedition." Journ. Linn. Soc., xl. (1912), pp. 293-338, Pis. 10 and 11. 



t E. de Wildeman, " Note preliminaire sur les Algues rapportees par M. E. Bacovitza, naturaliste de 

 1'expedition antaretique beige." Bull. Acad. Boy. Belg. 1900, pp. 558-569. 



J Van Heurck, " Diatomees " in "Resultats du voyage du 8.Y. 'Belgica' en 1897-99." Antwerp (1909), 

 pp. 1-128, Pis. I.-XIII. 



N. Wille, " Mitteilungen iiber einige von C. E. Borchgrevink auf dem antarktischen Festlande gesammelte 

 Pflanzen," iii., " Antarktische Algen." Nyt Mag. f. Naturvidenskab, xl. (1902), pp. 209-221, Tab. III., IV. 



|| J. Holmboe, iv., " Navicula mutica Kutz. aus dem antarktischen Festlande," in N. Wille, " Mitteilungen, 

 etc.," op. cit., pp. 221-222. 



IT W. West and G. S. West, " Freshwater Algse," in Reports on the Scientific Investigations, British 

 Antarctic Expedition, 1907-9, vol. i., Part vn., London (1911), pp. 263-298, Pis. XXIV.-XXVI. 



* L. Gain, " Deux especea nouvelles de Nostoc provenant de la region antarctique sudamericaine." Comptes 

 Rendus Ac., Paris, clii. (1911), pp. 1691-1694. 



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