FEESH-WATER ALG^ FROM BURMA
INCLUDING A FEW FROM BENGAL AND MADRAS.
I N T B O D U C T I O N .
MOST of the Algse which form the subj'cct of this memoir were collected in
certain districts of Burma and a few in Burdwan District of Bengal and Vizagapatam
District of Madras by Mr. I. H. Biirkill, M.A., during 1904, and were forwarded
to us for determination by Lieut.-Col. Prain, F.R.S., the Dii-ector of the Botanical
Survey of India. The material was contained in a series of twenty-four tubes, and
had been preserved in a weak solution of carbolic acid, the strength of whicli in
Bome instances had unfortunately been insuiEcient to prevent decomposition.
The collections were of somewhat varied character, and the results of the investigation
add very niatcrially to our knowledge of the distributioa of freshwater Algse
in the Indian region. Of the Alga; collected by Mr. Burkill, 36 species and a
number of varieties were previously undescribed, and two of thorn have had to be
referred to new genera. One of the latter is a large and handsome Desmid which,
owing to its peculiar morphological features, we have been compelled to place as the
type of a new genus—Euastndiim. The other is an Alga belonging to the Protococcace
®, occurring as free-floatiDg colonies fuiuiished with stout horns. This we have
named BurJciUia comuta. Two other Algai of great interest are Mougeotia products
and Urococctis tropicus. The former is a species of Mougeotia which in its methods of
spore-formation combines the characters of both Mougeoiia and Gonatonema; and the
latter is a green species of a genus in which the cells usually contain an abundance
of a red-brown pigment.
Some work has already been done at the fresh-water Alga; of the Indian region,
and the following are the principal papers which have appeared on the subject : —
(1^ Gruiwiv: Sus8wa=ser-Diatomaeeen uud Desmidiaceeii von dec Insel Banka. (in Rabenk.
Boitr. zur Kentniss u. Verbreit. Algen. Leipzig, 1865).
(2) Wa!lic/i\: Desmidiaceeo of Lower Bengal. (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 3, v, 1860).
(3) Joi/ma: Eurmeee Desmidiete. (Journ. Linn, Soe. Bot. xsi, 1886).
ANK. EOI-. BOT. GAKC. CALCUTTA Vor.. VI.