42 OPINION OF MODERN NA TURALISTS. 



it was a kind of alga, allied to the Tremella cruenta. Azara 

 was of this same opinion, except that, instead of a tremella, 

 he recognised in it an alga of the genus Protococcus, which he 

 called Protococcus kermesinus, because its colour resembled that 

 of the kermes, or cochineal. 



In the opinion of the observers whom we have cited, the 

 colouring corpuscles of the snow belong to the vegetable king- 

 dom. This opinion was supported by numerous adherents, and 

 soon acquired so great an authority, that, in an assembly of natu- 

 ralists at Lausanne, De Candolle overwhelmed with sarcasm 

 a communication from Lamont, Prior of the Hospice of St 

 Bernard, on the " animality of red snow." And yet this last 

 hypothesis was not so rash as might have been supposed; 

 for Dr Scoresby, to whom we owe a profound study on the 

 crystalline forms of snow, had already attributed to an animal 

 matter the colouring of the snow and polar ice. 



Now-a-days, however, it may be regarded as finally settled 

 that this phenomenon is due to the immense aggregation of 

 minute plants belonging to the species called Protococctts 

 nivalis;* so called in allusion to the extreme simplicity of 

 its organisation, and the peculiar nature of its habitat. If we 

 place a portion of the snow coloured with this plant upon a 

 piece of white paper, says Mr Macmillan,t and allow it to melt 

 and evaporate, we find a residuum of granules just sufficient 



* It is but fair to add, however, that Vogt and others contend for the 

 animal origin of this substance, and regard the Protococcus nivalis as simply 

 a development of the infusoria, Disceraa nivalis. 



t Macmillan, "Footnotes from the Page of Nature," pp. 141-143. 



