Scourfieldia cordiformis, a New Chlamydomonad. 
BY 
H. TAICEDA, D.I.C. 
With five Figures in the Text. 
A MINUTE unicellular Alga was recently discovered by the writer 
among some material of another Alga, kindly handed to him by Pro- 
fessor F. E. Fritsch, who had collected it last May in a Sphagnum marsh 
at Keston, Kent, and since then had kept it in the laboratory culture. The 
organism has proved to be a new species of Scourfieldia } a very interesting 
genus of Chlamydomonadeae. The new Alga is very similar in many 
respects to the described species N. complanata , G. S. West, 2 but differs 
chiefly by the peculiar type of compression shown by an individual when 
viewed from the side. S. complanata is narrowly oblong in the side view, 
having both sides practically parallel to each other, while the side view of 
N. cordiformis is obovate (s in Figs. 1-3). In the front view the new 
Figs. 1-5. Scourfieldia cordiformis , Tak., sp. nov. Figs. 1-3, three individuals in front {/) 
and side (s) views. x 1,500. Fig. 4, diagrammatic representation of anterior end view, showing 
nature of chloroplast. Fig. 5, ditto of posterior end view. 
organism is heart-shaped (/in Figs. 1-3), hence the specific name cordiformis 
has been given. The chloroplast is constructed exactly in the same way as 
in N. complanata , 3 being compressed bell-shaped with a comparatively large 
amount of colourless protoplasm within its central hollow. Another impor- 
tant character to be mentioned here is that the chloroplast, when viewed 
from the front, shows a median longitudinal slit reaching about half-way 
1 G. S. West, in Journ. Bot., 1912, p. 326, Fig. 3. 2 1 . c. 
3 Cf. West, 1 . c., Fig. 1, f. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XXX. No. CXVII. January, 1916.] 
