A New Genus of Terrestrial Algæ

Abstract

IN the damper hothouses of the Cambridge Botanical Gardens, there occurs in some quantity a green alga growing on fragments of oolitic limestone. It constitutes a new genus (Cladophorella) of Cladophoraceæ, and its discovery is of interest from several points of view. Pieces of the same kind of oolitic rock are present in some of the cooler houses, as well as in parts of the rock garden; moreover, a very similar material has been used in the construction of many of the Cambridge colleges. A search has failed to reveal Cladophorella elsewhere than in the hothouses, so that on present evidence it would appear to be an introduced tropical form. The Cladophorales were the only major group of Green Algæ in which so far no truly terrestrial representatives had been found, and the discovery of Cladophorella shows that the capacity for a subaerial existence is general among the groups of Chlorophyceæ.