237 
THE ALGH OF THE BIRKET QARUN, EGYPT. 
By G. 8S. West, M.A., D.Sc., F.L.S. 
Lappe 498.) 
Jisiad by. himself and Mr. C. L. Boulenger to the Birket Qarun, 
a lake in the Fayim Province of Egypt. Little is known of the 
Algz of Egypt, and the Ege records I can find are a few by 
Hansgirg ae Zahlbruckn 
Birket Qarun is a 2 is te lake some twenty-five miles in 
length by five or six miles in breadth. Dr. Cunnington states + 
that “it 1 “ however, only a remnant of the historic Lake Moeris, 
which was many times greater.’ The lake still communicates 
with the Nile by the Bahr Yusef, a channel over two hundred 
miles long. The water is brackish, with a pre a little above 
that of fresh ‘anak. (specific ase = 1008-2 at 60° F.). The total 
amount of dissolved salts is ut 1:1 per rote as Cunnington 
writes that, “since the lake is so shallow, the water is subject to to 
considerable changes in temperature, corresponding to the differ- 
of the air-temperature between night and day, which are 
oles a elas corded temperatures diove a maximum of 
94:2° F very hallow water close to the shore about 2 p.m., 
and a minimum of 54:8° F. as a surface reading in the early 
ifference of temperature of as much as 8’8° F. was 
also observed between the surface water and that at a depth of 
Algee were collected from the shores of the lake pereiend 
from stones), from ponds, swamps, and stagnant pools near the 
shores, and from the inlets. A number of plankton-collections 
sie also made. The total number of Alge obtained, vzz. sixty- 
X species, is not very great, a fact which must be ane vies to 
the brackish gviise of the water from which m the 
ee were made. As one would expect, the ie ae 
e poorly represented (only fourteen species or 21:2 per cent.), 
wine the Myx inti and Bacillariee are very prominent, 
the former being represented by nineteen species (or 28-8 per 
cent. ef the total) a the latter by thirty-two species { (or 48:5 
per cen 
One a the most interesting features - the ‘parneage was the 
occurrence of Polysiphonia utricularis and a form of Entero- 
lumosa Kitz., both of which typio ~y marine Alge. 
The presence of a species of Polysiphonia in the lake is quite on 
a level with the occurrence of the Anthomedusan discovered by 
ue — _ k. k. Naturhist. Hofmus. Wien, | pp. 402, 403, &c. 
+ Cunnington in Proc. Zool. Soc. June, 1908, p. 3 
ae ix. probable that at least ten more species should be added to the 
a as there are some which I have not been able to satisfactorily 
iden 
Foumia or Botany.—Vor, 47. [Juny, 1909.] U 
