NOTES ON THE ALGAE OF IOWA. 
BY ROBERT EARLE BUCHANAN. 
Historical. The first definite mention of Iowa Algae which has 
come to our notice is that published by Dr. C. M. Hobby 1 in the 
Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science. His list comprises 
some twenty-seven genera and seventy-four species and varieties. 
The list is prefaced as follows: “The species given below were 
mainly collected in the immediate vicinity of Iowa City. I am 
greatly indebted to Rev. Francis Wolle, of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 
for assistance in the study and identification of these plants. The 
classification used is that of Kirchner in “Algen von Schlesien, 
Breslau, 1878.” The list comprises an unusually long list of spiro- 
gyras, some eighteen species and one variety. 
Two years later, in 1882, J. C. Arthur 2 published his “History 
of Floyd County” in which he listed a number of species of the algae 
and the fungi, as well as the higher plants. 
In the same year, Prof. C. E. Bessey, 3 then at the Agricultural 
college, published the following note regarding the abundance and 
distribution of algae : “The excessively wet autumn in central Iowa 
caused an unusual growth of the fresh water algae. Every pond 
and ditch was filled with Spirogyra, Zygnema, Vaucheria, etc., until 
the first of November. Usually our waters are quite barren of these 
growths so late in the season, but this season the continued wet 
weather, instead of the usual drouth, favored their development.” 
Dr. Bessey 4 in 1884 published a “Preliminary list of Cryptogams 
of Ames and Vicinity.” Under Cyanophyceae eleven determined 
species are listed, under Palmellaceae 2, Protococcaceae 2, Zoosporae 
6, Desmidiaceae 2, Diatomaceae 7 genera, Zygnemaceae 6, Oophytes 
7. Total 36 specific determinations. 
In 1897 Prof. B. Shimek 5 published a paper entitled “Notes on 
Aquatic plants from Northern Iowa.” There is included in this list 
a number (eight) of species of algae, two Chaetophoras, four Clad- 
ophoras, and one Hydrodictyon. 
P. C. Meyers 6 in a paper published in 1899 has given preliminary 
notes on the distribution of the Diatoms of the state, material having 
been obtained from a variety of sources. 
(47 ) 
