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ther, yellowish or red. After the escape of the granules, the globule, or
rather the empty membrane, is colourless, and, when immersed in water,
floats on the surface. Gelatine expanded, shapeless, without any defined
border, colourless, various in thickness ; sometimes thinner, sometimes
thicker than the globules. On this substance, the globules are
sessile, or very slightly sunk, never immersed.
The remarkable substance brought by Captain Ross from
the Arctic Regions, under the name of Red Snow, has excited
in no ordinary degree the attention of the most eminent
botanists and chemists. German, Swedish, French and
British philosophers, have published observations upon it, and
endeavoured, by every means within their reach, by direct
experiment, or ingenious theory, to account for its presence,
and ascertain its precise nature. I t has been clearly proved to
he of no unfrequent occurrence in most of the mountainous
countries of Furope, and to flourish indifferently on the pure
snow, rocks of limestone, or even on the surface of the ground,
and decayed vegetable substances. In Scotland, the practised
eye of Captain C a r m i c h a e i . has enabled him to discover it
in abundance; and it is to his kindness that I am indebted for
native specimens to represent in this work.
In giving a brief history of this most singular plant, I derive
great assistance from the labours of A g a r d h * and N e e s
A B F s e n b e c k f. The memoir of the former will he found
translated at the end of the present article; the account subsequently
given by the latter, is, in every point of view, the most
complete one published.
Chemical investigations I am compelled to omit, because
my limits will not allow me to introduce them: they are,
however, of less importance, for they do not militate against
the conclusion that the Red Snow is of a vegetable nature.
When the Red Snow was first brought to Fngland hy
Captain Ross, it was examined botanically by Mr R. B r o a v n
and Mr F. B a u e r . The sagacity of the former led him at
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* Nov. Act. Acad. Natur. Cur. v. xii. p. 737.
+ AVorks of R o b e r t B r o w n , German edition, v. i. p. 343. et 571. et seq.
once to hint at the affinity the colouring matter bore with
Tremella cruenta. Fug. Bot. near to which it has ever since
remained. Mr B a u e r , on the other hand, was struck with its
resemblance to the minute Fungi of the genus Uredo, and,
after a minute investigation, in which he detected pedicels to
some of the globules, he concluded without hesitation that it
was actually a Uredo, and named it U. nivalis. Deservedly
celebrated as Mr B a u e r is in microscopical examinations, it
can scarcely he doubted, in the present instance, that he was
deceived, as well as Baron W r a n g e l afterwards. No other
naturalists have ever been able to discover the pedicels; and
the now better known relations of the plant render their existence
in the highest degree improbable.
It was the opinion of S p r e n g e l that the snow owed its
red colour to an Alga, near Vaucheria radicata, Ag.
The turn of investigation now fell to the learned A g a r d h ,
to whom some of the original Red Snow was communicated.
He came to the immediate conclusion that it was an Alga.
About this time, a plant was described hy Baron W r a n g
e d , as a species of Lepraria, under the name of L . herme-
sina. The Baron met with it upon white limestone rocks,
forming a thin crust, of a red colour; and he supposed, from a
slight violet odour, that it Avas the long disputed Byssus lo-
lithus of LinNxEUS. Upon comparing this Lepraria with the
Red Snow, it was evident to A g a r d h that the two plants
were one and the same; and he therefore published a long and
interesting memoir upon the subject, in which, not finding the
plant agree with the genus Pahnella, he mentions a new one
which he had formed to receive it, under the name of Protococcus.
This is adopted hy Dr N e e s a b F s e n b e c k , in his elaborate
account in “ R o b e r t B r o w n ’s vermischte Botanische
Schriften,” where he has also given a plate, representing both
the figures of B a u e r and W r a n g e l .
In regard to microscopical appearance and structure, Mr
B a u e r observes, that he found a number of transparent, colourless,
spherical bodies, floating on the surface of the water,
and that the red globules of various sizes sunk to the bottom.
After a time, he ascertained that the red globules were situated