ON THE OCCURRENCE OF RED SNOW IN HERTFORDSHIRE. 249 


in a straight line, and then with a rapid and peculiar scythe-like 
motion it would be swung round into the spiral form. The move- 
ments of the cilia very much resemble those of Stentor, but have 
rather more of a vibratile character. 
The only notices I can find of the occurrence of Chetospira 
Miilleri in England are, firstly in a paper by Mr. J. G. Tatem, read 
at the Quekett Club, March 27th, 1868, wherein he records it for 
the first time as a British species ; secondly, in an article in ‘Science 
Gossip,’ July, 1868, by Mr. F. C. S. Roper, who states that he found 
it on the 28th of May, 1851, on Snaresbrook Common, which was 
five years prior to its having been described by Mr. Lachmann, and 
that he sent drawings of it to several naturalists, but none of them 
were able to identify it. Possibly the animalcule may not be so 
very rare, but its small size and extreme timidity or sensitiveness, 
which causes it to retire with the slightest shaking, is probably the 
cause of its being over-looked. 
Since making the above notes, I have this morning had the good 
. fortune to find another specimen quite close to the former; the 
sheath, which is imbedded in the cellular structure of the egg-case, 
is lageniform in shape, with a rather long narrow neck ; it is almost 
identical with Mr. ‘Tatem’s figure, and the spiral makes two turns, 
thus determining it to be Chetospira Miilleri. The true species 
has therefore been found as well as the apparent variety.—Z7vans. 
Herts, Nat. Hist. Soc. 

— 
ON THE OCCURRENCE OF RED SNOW IN 
HERTFORDSHIRE. 
By R. B. Crorr, R.N., F.LS., F.R.MLS. 
()* the return of Captain Ross’s expedition from the Arctic 
regions in 1819, red snow, which had been found extending 
over a range of cliffs on the shore of Baffin’s Bay, in some cases 
12 feet deep, was in its melted state subjected to careful examina- 
tion, and was pronounced by the eminent botanist, Robert Brown, 
to contain a unicellular plant of the order Algze, an opinion since 
confirmed by Greville and others, and now generally adopted, the 
plant being known by several names, amongst which that of 
Protococcus nivalis, given to it by Agardh, and Palmella nivalis 
given to it by Sir William Hooker, are most usually accepted. 
The following is a description by the authors of the ‘ Micrographic 
Dictionary’ of the organism in red snow brought home by Captain 
Parry, R.N. :-=“ Frond, an indefinite gelatinous mass, densely filled 


