( 130 ) 
FMonthly Microscopical 
L Journal, Feb. 1, 1869. 
NOTES AND MEMOEANDA. 
"Note OIL DesniidiacesB of Greenland. — It is a curious and note- 
wortliy fact that the Desmidiacese are apparently as cosmopolitan 
in their range as the Diatomacese, the same forms being found flourish- 
ing under tropical heat and Arctic cold. Without exactly knowing 
why it should be so, an opinion has nevertheless become general 
amongst algologists, that there is something in the physical con- 
stitution of the Diatom — perhaps its being protected by the more 
enduring wall of silex — which enables us to predicate a greater power 
to resist the effect of climatic change in it than in the Desmid. 
The opinion is, however, erroneous ; for although my attention whilst 
in Greenland, in 1860, was directed too exclusively towards marine 
natural history to admit of my devoting much time to the collection 
of land and fresh-water objects, on one occasion I obtained no less 
than twenty-seven species of Desmidiaceee. These were found near 
Goodhaab on the west coast, in lat. 64° N., in fresh-water pools, at 
elevations varying from 1 to 400 feet above the sea-level. They 
were growing so plentifully that the entire number was gathered by a 
single dip in each spot of my collecting-bottle. In size the speci- 
mens were certainly somewhat inferior to that of similar species met 
with in more genial climates. But otherwise, as regards luxuriance 
of growth, the rate and extent to which the paradoxical multipli- 
cation by division appeared to be taking place, and the brilliance 
of the green colours of the Chlorophyll, there was no inferiority 
whatever. The period of the year was the middle of August, when 
during two or three hours about midday, the sun's heat is very 
great even in these boreal latitudes ; but this only makes the circum- 
stance the more wonderful, inasmuch as the temperature, for at least 
twenty out of the twenty-four hours, is very low indeed, and there 
was at that time abundance of ice on the fiords and upon the 
heights. The pools from which the gatherings were made were said 
to be completely frozen up for the greater portion of the year ; so that 
the period of active vitality and reproduction, although limited in this 
extraordinary manner, must nevertheless suf&ce for the continuance of 
the species. The following is a list of the Desmidiaceae referred to — 
Staurastrum Bichieii. 
Hyalotlieca dissiliens. 
Didymoprium Borreri. 
Sphserozosma excavatum. 
Euastrum didelta. 
Cosmarium crenatum. 
„ pyramidatum. 
„ MeneglienL 
„ Botrytis. 
„ margantiferum. 
„ hinoculatum. 
Staurastrum polymorphum. 
„ bracMatum. 
„ echinatum. 
„ var. nov. 
„ dejectum. 
„ cuspidatum. 
Artlirodesmus incus. 
Xanthidium cristatum. 
Tetmemorus Brebissonii. 
Penium Brebissonii. 
Glosterium Dianse. 
,, var. nov. 
Artlirodesmus falcatus. 
Together with a new filamentous genus, and a form like Holocystis, but 
with central granular inflation. G. C. Wallich, M.D., F.L.S. 
