See Robert Nisbet Bain, The First Romanovs (London, 1905). (R. N. B.)
ALFANI, DOMENICO, italian painter, was born at Perugia towards the close of the 15th century. He was a contemporary of Raphael, with whom he studied in the school of Perugino. The two artists lived on terms of intimate friendship, and the influence of the more distinguished of the two is so clearly traceable in the works of the other, that these have frequently been attributed to Raphael. Towards the close of his life Alfani gradually changed his style and approximated to that of the later Florentine school. The date of his death, according to some, was 1540, while others say he was alive in 1553. Pictures by Alfani may be seen in collections at Florence and in several churches in Perugia.
ALFELD, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Hanover, 10 m. W. of Hildesheim, on the river Leine and the Hanover-Cassel main line of railway. Pop. (1900) 4900. It has a handsome church with twin spires, and training colleges for schoolmasters and theological candidates. Its industries are flourishing, and embrace paper-making, agricultural machine- works, iron-founding and flax-spinning.
ALFIERI, VITTORIO, COUNT (1749-1803), Italian dramatist, was born on the 17th of January 1749 at Asti in Piedmont. He lost his father in early infancy; but he continued to reside with his mother, who married a second time, till his tenth year, when he was placed at the academy of Turin. After he had passed a twelvemonth at the academy, he went on a short visit to a relation who dwelt at Coni; and during his stay there he made his first poetical attempt in a sonnet chiefly borrowed from lines in Ariosto and Metastasio, the only poets he had at that time read. When thirteen years of age he was induced to begin the study of civil and canonical law; but the attempt only served to disgust him with every species of application and to increase his relish for the perusal of French romances. By the death of his uncle, who had hitherto taken some charge of his education and conduct, he was left, at the age of fourteen, to enjoy without control his vast paternal inheritance, augmented by the recent accession of his uncle's fortune. He now began to attend the riding-school, where he acquired that rage for horses and equestrian exercise which continued to be one of his strongest passions till the close of his existence.
After some time spent in alternate fits of extravagant dissipation and ill-directed study, he was seized with a desire of travelling; and having obtained permission from the king, he departed in 1766, under the care of an English preceptor. Restless and unquiet, he posted with the utmost rapidity through the towns of Italy; and his improvement was such as was to be expected from his mode of travelling and his previous habits. Hoping to find in foreign countries some relief from the tedium and ennui with which he was oppressed, and being anxious to become acquainted with the French theatre, he proceeded to Paris. But he appears to have been completely dissatisfied with everything he witnessed in France and contracted a dislike to its people, which his intercourse in future years rather contributed to augment than diminish. In Holland he became deeply enamoured of a married lady, who returned his attachment, but who was soon obliged to accompany her husband to Switzerland. Alfieri, whose feelings were of the most impetuous description, was in despair at this separation, and returned to his own country in the utmost anguish and despondency of mind. While under this depression of spirits he was induced to seek alleviation from works of literature; and the perusal of Plutarch's Lives, which he read with profound emotion, inspired him with an enthusiastic passion for freedom and independence. Under the influence of this rage for liberty he recommenced his travels; and his only gratification, in the absence of freedom among the continental states, appears to have been derived from contemplating the wild and sterile regions of the north of Sweden, where gloomy forests, lakes and precipices conspired to excite those sublime and melancholy ideas which were congenial to his disposition. Everywhere his soul felt as if confined by the bonds of society; he panted for something more free in government, more elevated in sentiment, more devoted in love and more perfect in friendship. In search of this ideal world he posted through various countries more with the rapidity of a courier than of one who travels for amusement or instruction. During a journey to London he engaged in an intrigue with a married lady of high rank; and having been detected, the publicity of a rencounter with the injured husband, and of a divorce which followed, rendered it expedient and desirable for him to quit England. He then visited Spain and Portugal, where he became acquainted with the Abbe Caluso, who remained through life the most attached and estimable friend he ever possessed. In 1772 Alfieri returned to Turin. This time he became enamoured of the Marchesa Turinetti di Prie, whom he loved with his usual ardour, and who seems to have been as undeserving of a sincere attachment as those he had hitherto adored. In the course of a long attendance on his mistress, during a malady with which she was afflicted, he one day wrote a dialogue or scene of a drama, which he left at her house. On a difference taking place between them the piece was returned to him, and being retouched and extended to five acts, it was performed at Turin in 1775, under the title of Cleopatra.
From this moment Alfieri was seized with an insatiable thirst for theatrical fame, and the remainder of his life was devoted to its attainment. His first two tragedies, Filippo and Polinice were originally written in French prose; and when he came to versify them in Italian, he found that, from his Lombard origin and long intercourse with foreigners, he expressed himself with feebleness and inaccuracy. Accordingly, with the view of improving his Italian style, he went to Tuscany and, during an alternate residence at Florence and Siena, he completed his Filippo and Polinice, and conceived the plan of various other dramas. While thus employed he became acquainted with the countess of Albany, who then resided with her husband at Florence. For her he formed an attachment which, if less violent than his former loves, appears to have been more permanent. With this motive to remain at Florence, he could not endure the chains by which his vast possessions bound him to Piedmont. He therefore resigned his whole property to his sister, the countess Cumiana, reserving an annuity which scarcely amounted to a half of his original revenues. At this period the countess of Albany, urged by the ill-treatment she received from her husband, sought refuge in Rome, where she at length received permission from the pope to live apart from her tormentor. Alfieri followed the countess to that capital, where he completed fourteen tragedies, four of which were now for the first time printed at Sienna.
At length, however, it was thought proper that, by leaving Rome, he should remove the aspersions which had been thrown on the object of his affections. During the year 1783 he therefore travelled through different states of Italy, and published six additional tragedies. The interests of his love and literary glory had not diminished his rage for horses, which seems to have been at least the third passion of his soul. He came to England solely for the purpose of purchasing a number of these animals, which he carried with him to Italy. On his return he learned that the countess of Albany had gone to Colmar in Alsace, where he joined her, and resided with her under the same roof during the rest of his life. They chiefly passed their time between Alsace and Paris, but at length took up their abode entirely in that metropolis. While here, Alfieri made arrangements with Didot for an edition of his tragedies, but was soon after forced to quit Paris by the storms of the Revolution. He recrossed the Alps with the countess, and finally settled at Florence. The last ten years of his life, which he spent in that city, seem to have been the happiest of his existence. During that long period his tranquillity was only interrupted by the entrance of the Revolutionary armies into Florence in 1799. Though an enemy of kings, the aristocratic feeling of Alfieri rendered him also a decided foe to the principles and leaders of the French Revolution; and he rejected with the utmost contempt those advances which were made with a view to bring him over to their cause. The concluding years of his life were laudably employed in the study of the Greek literature and in perfecting a series of comedies. His assiduous labour on this subject, which he pursued with his characteristic impetuosity, exhausted his strength, and brought on a malady for which he would not adopt the prescriptions of his physicians, but obstinately persisted in employing remedies of his own. His disorder rapidly increased, and he died on the 8th of October 1803.
The character of Alfieri may be best appreciated from the portrait which he has drawn of himself in his own Memoirs of his Life. He was evidently of an irritable, impetuous and almost ungovernable temper. Pride, which seems to have been a ruling sentiment, may account for many apparent inconsistencies of his character. But his less amiable qualities were greatly softened by the cultivation of literature. His application to study gradually tranquillized his temper and softened his manners, leaving him at the same time in perfect possession of those good qualities which he had inherited from nature—a warm and disinterested attachment to his family and friends, united to a generosity, vigour and elevation of character, which rendered him not unworthy to embody in his dramas the actions and sentiments of Grecian heroes.
It is to his dramas that Alfieri is chiefly indebted for the high reputation he has attained. Before his time the Italian language, so harmonious in the Sonnets of Petrarch and so energetic in the Commedia of Dante, had been invariably languid and prosaic in dramatic dialogue. The pedantic and inanimate tragedies of the 16th century were followed, during the iron age of Italian literature, by dramas of which extravagance in the sentiments and improbability in the action were the chief characteristics. The prodigious success of the Merope of Maffei, which appeared in the commencement of the 18th century, may be attributed more to a comparison with such productions than to intrinsic merit. In this degradation of tragic taste the appearance of the tragedies of Alfieri was perhaps the most important literary event that had occurred in Italy during the 18th century. On these tragedies it is difficult to pronounce a judgment, as the taste and system of the author underwent considerable change and modification during the intervals which elapsed between the three periods of their publication. An excessive harshness of style, an asperity of sentiment and total want of Poetical ornament are the characteristics of his first four tragedies, Filippo, Polinice, Antigone and Virginia. These faults were in some measure corrected in the six tragedies which he gave to the world some years after, and in those which he published along with Saul, the drama which enjoyed the greatest success of all his productions—a popularity which may be partly attributed to the severe and unadorned manner of Alfieri being well adapted to the patriarchal simplicity of the age in which the scene of the tragedy is placed. But though there be a considerable difference in his dramas, there are certain observations applicable to them all. None of the plots are of his own invention. They are founded either on mythological fable or history; most of them had been previously treated by the Greek dramatists or by Seneca. Rosmunda, the only one which could be supposed of his own contrivance, and which is certainly the least happy effusion of his genius, is partly founded on the eighteenth novel of the third part of Bandello and partly on Prevost's Memoires d'un homme de qualite. But whatever subject he chooses, his dramas are always formed on the Grecian model and breathe a freedom and independence worthy of an Athenian poet. Indeed, his Agide and Bruto may rather be considered oratorical declamations and dialogues on liberty than tragedies. The unities of time and place are not so scrupulously observed in his as in the ancient dramas; but he has rigidly adhered to a unity of action and interest. He occupies his scene with one great action and one ruling passion, and removes from it every accessory event or feeling. In this excessive zeal for the observance of unity he seems to have forgotten that its charm consists in producing a common relation between multiplied feelings, and not in the bare exhibition of one, divested of those various accompaniments which give harmony to the whole. Consistently with that austere and simple manner which he considered the chief excellence of dramatic composition, he excluded from his scene all coups de theatre, all philosophical reflexions, and that highly ornamented Versification which had been so assiduously cultivated by his predecessors. In his anxiety, however, to avoid all superfluous ornament, he has stripped his dramas of the embellishments of imagination; and for the harmony and flow of poetical language he has substituted, even in his best performances, a style which, though correct and pure, is generally harsh, elaborate and abrupt; often strained into unnatural energy or condensed into factitious conciseness. The chief excellence of Alfieri consists in powerful delineation of dramatic character. In his Filippo he has represented, almost with the masterly touches of Tacitus, the sombre character, the dark mysterious counsels, the suspensa semper et obscura verba, of the modern Tiberius. In Polinice, the characters of the rival brothers are beautifully contrasted; in Maria Stuarda, that unfortunate queen is represented unsuspicious, impatient of contradiction and violent in her attachments. In Mirra, the character of Ciniro is perfect as a father and king, and Cecri is a model of a wife and mother. In the representation of that species of mental alienation where the judgment has perished but traces of character still remain, he is peculiarly happy. The insanity of Saul is skilfully managed; and the horrid joy of Orestes in killing Aegisthus rises finely and naturally to madness in finding that, at the same time, he had inadvertently slain his mother.
Whatever may be the merits or defects of Alfieri, he may be considered as the founder of a new school in the Italian drama. His country hailed him as her sole tragic poet; and his successors in the same path of literature have regarded his bold, austere and rapid manner as the genuine model of tragic composition.
Besides his tragedies, Alfieri published during his life many sonnets, five odes on American independence and the poem of Etruria, founded on the assassination of Alexander I., duke of Florence. Of his prose works the most distinguished for animation and eloquence is the Panegyric on Trajan, composed in a transport of indignation at the supposed feebleness of Pliny's eulogium. The two books entitled La Tirannide and the Essays on Literature and Government are remarkable for elegance and vigour of style, but are too evidently imitations of the manner of Machiavel. His Antigallican, which was written at the same time with his Defence of Louis XVI., comprehends an historical and satirical view of the French Revolution. The posthumous works of Alfieri consist of satires, six political comedies and the Memoirs of his Life—a work which will always be read with interest, in spite of the cold and languid gravity with which he delineates the most interesting adventures and the strongest passions of his agitated life.
See Mem. di Vit. Alfieri; Sismondi, De la lit. du midi de l'Europe; Walker's Memoir on Italian Tragedy; Giorn. de Pisa, tom. lviii.; Life of Alfieri, by Centofanti (Florence, 1842); Vita, Giornuli, Lettere di Alfieri, by Teza (Florence, 1861); Vittorio Alfieri, by Antonini and Cognetti (Turin, 1898).
ALFORD, HENRY (1810-1871), English divine and scholar, was born in London on the 7th of October 1810. He came of a Somersetshire family, which had given five consecutive generations of clergymen to the Anglican church. Alford's early years were passed with his widowed father, who was curate of Steeple Ashton in Wiltshire. He was an extremely precocious lad, and before he was ten had written several Latin odes, a history of the Jews and a series of homiletic outlines. After a peripatetic school course he went up to Cambridge in 1827 as a scholar of Trinity. In 1832 he was 34th wrangler and 8th classic, and in 1834 was made fellow of Trinity. He had already taken orders, and in 1835 began his eighteen years' tenure of the vicarage of Wymeswold in Leicestershire, from which seclusion the twice-repeated offer of a colonial bishopric failed to draw him. He was Hulsean lecturer at Cambridge in 1841-1842, and steadily built up a reputation as scholar and preacher, which would have been enhanced but for his discursive ramblings in the fields of minor poetry and magazine editing. In September 1853 Alford removed to Quebec Chapel, London, where he had a large and cultured congregation. In March 1857 Viscount Palmerston advanced him to the deanery of Canterbury, where, till his death on the 12th of January 1871, he lived the same strenuous and diversified life that had always characterized him. The inscription on his tomb, chosen by himself, is ``Diversorium Viatoris Hierosolymam Proficiscentis.''
Alford was a not inconsiderable artist, as his picture-book, The Riviera (1870), shows, and he had abundant musical and mechanical talent. Besides editing the works of John Donne, he published several volumes of his own verse, The School of the Heart (1835), The Abbot of Muchelnaye (1841), and a number of hymns, the best-known of which are ``Forward! be our watch-word,'' ``Come, ye thankful people, come,'' and ``Ten thousand times ten thousand.'' He translated the Odyssey, wrote a well-known manual of idiom, A Plea for the Queen's English (1863), and was the first editor of the Contemporary Review (1866—1870). His chief fame, however, rests upon his monumental edition of the New Testament in Greek (4 vols.), which occupied him from 1841 to 1861. In this work he first brought before English students a careful collation of the readings of the chief MSS. and the researches of the ripest continental scholarship of his day. Philological rather than theological in character, it marked an epochal change from the old homiletic commentary, and though more recent research, patristic and papyral, has largely changed the method of New Testament exegesis, Alford's work is still a quarry where the student can dig with a good deal of profit.
His Life, written by his widow, appeared in 1873 (Rivington). (A. J. G.)
ALFRED, or AELFRED, known as THE GREAT (848-? 900), king of England, was born in 848 at Wantage, and was the fourth son of King AEthelwulf and his first wife (Osburh). He seems to have been a child of singular attractiveness and promise, and stories of his boyhood were remembered. At the age of five (853) he was sent to Rome, where he was confirmed by Leo IV., who is also stated to have ``hallowed him as king.'' Later writers interpreted this as an anticipatory crowning in preparation for his ultimate succession to the throne of Wessex. That, however, could not have been foreseen in 853, as Alfred had three elder brothers living. It is probably to be understood either of investiture with the consular insignia, or possibly with some titular royalty such as that of the under-kingdom of Kent. In 855 Alfred again went to Rome with his father AEthelwulf, returning towards the end of 856. About two years later his father died. During the short reigns of his two eldest brothers, AEthelbald and AEthelberht, nothing is heard of Alfred. But with the accession of the third brother AEthelred (866) the public life of Alfred begins, and he enters on his great work of delivering England from the Danes. It is in this reign that Asser applies to Alfred the unique title of secundarius, which seems to indicate a position analogous to that of the Celtic tanist, a recognized successor, closely associated with the reigning prince. It is probable that this arrangement was definitely sanctioned by the witenagemot, to guard against the danger of a disputed succession should AEthelred fall in battle. In 868 Alfred married Ealhswith, daughter of AEthelred Mucill, who is called ealdorman of the Gaini, an unidentified district. The same year the two brothers made an unsuccessful attempt to relieve Mercia from the pressure of the Danes. For nearly two years Wessex had a respite. But at the end of 870 the storm burst; and the year which followed has been rightly called ``Alfred's year of battles.'' Nine general engagements were fought with varying fortunes, though the place and date of two of them have not been recorded. A successful skirmish at Englefield, Berks (December 31, 870), was followed by a severe defeat at Reading (January 4, 871), and this, four days later, by the brilliant victory of Ashdown, near Compton Beauchamp in Shrivenham Hundred. On the 22nd of January the English were again defeated at Basing, and on the 22nd of March at Marton, Wilts, the two unidentified battles having perhaps occurred in the interval. In April AEthelred died, and Alfred succeeded to the whole burden of the contest. While he was busied with his brother's exequies, the Danes defeated the English in his absence at an unnamed spot, and once more in his presence at Wilton in May. After this peace was made, and for the next five years the Danes were occupied in other parts of England, Alfred merely keeping a force of observation on the frontier. But in 876 part of the Danes managed to slip past him and occupied Wareham; whence, early in 877, under cover of treacherous negotiations, they made a dash westwards and seized Exeter. Here Alfred blockaded them, and a relieving fleet having been scattered by a storm, the Danes had to submit and withdrew to Mercia. But in January 878 they made a sudden swoop on Chippenham, a royal vill in which Alfred had been keeping his Christmas, ``and most of the people they reduced, except the King Alfred, and he with a little band made his way . . . by wood and swamp, and after Easter he . . . made a fort at Athelney, and from that fort kept fighting against the foe'' (Chron..) The idea that Alfred, during his retreat at Athelney, was a helpless fugitive rests upon the foolish legend of the cakes. In reality he was organizing victory. By the middle of May his preparations were complete and he moved out of Athelney, being joined on the way by the levies of Somerset, Wilts and Hants. The Danes on their side moved out of Chippenham, and the two armies met at Edington in Wiltshire. The result was a decisive victory for Alfred. The Danes submitted. Guthrum, the Danish king, and twenty-nine of his chief men accepted baptism. By the next year (879) not only Wessex, but Mercia, west of Watling Street, was cleared of the invader. This is the arrangement known as the peace of Wedmore (878), though no document embodying its provisions is in existence. And though for the present the north-eastern half of England, including London, remained in the hands of the Danes, in reality the tide had turned, and western Europe was saved from the danger of becoming a heathen Scandinavian power. For the next few years there was peace, the Danes being kept busy on the continent. A landing in Kent in 884 or 885,1 though successfully repelled, encouraged the East Anglian Danes to revolt. The measures taken by Alfred to repress this revolt culminated in the capture of London in 885 or 886, and the treaty known as Alfred and Guthrum's peace, whereby the boundaries of the treaty of Wedmore (with which this is often confused) were materially modified in Alfred's favour. Once more for a time there was a lull; but in the autumn of 892 (893) the final storm burst. The Danes, finding their position on the continent becoming more and more precarious, crossed to England in two divisions, amounting in the aggregate to 330 sail, and entrenched themselves, the larger body at Appledore and the lesser under Haesten at Milton in Kent. The fact that the new invaders brought their wives and children with them shows that this was no mere raid, but a deliberate attempt, in concert with the Northumbrian and East Anglian Danes, to conquer England. Alfred, 893 (894), took up a position whence he could observe both forces. While he was negotiating with Haesten the Danes at Appledore broke out and struck north-westwards, but were overtaken by Alfred's eldest son, Edward, and defeated in a general engagement at Farnham, and driven to take refuge in Thorney Island in the Hertfordshire Colne, where they were blockaded and ultimately compelled to submit. They then fell back on Essex, and after suffering another defeat at Benfleet coalesced with Haesten's force at Shoebury. Alfred had been on his way to relieve his son at Thorney when he heard that the Northumbrian and East Anglian Danes were besieging Exeter and an unnamed fort on the coast of North Devon. Alfred at once hurried westwards and raised the siege of Exeter; the fate of the other place is not recorded. Meanwhile the force under Haesten set out to march up the Thames valley, possibly with the idea of assisting their friends in the west. But they were met by a large force under the three great ealdormen of Mercia, Wilts and Somerset, and forced to head off to the north-west, being finally overtaken and blockaded at Buttington, which some identify with Buttington Tump at the mouth of the Wye, others with Buttington near Welshpool. An attempt to break through the English lines was defeated with loss; those who escaped retreated to Shoebury. Then after collecting reinforcements they made a sudden dash across England and occupied the ruined Roman walls of Chester. The English did not attempt a winter blockade, but contented themselves with destroying all the supplies in the neighbourhood. And early in 894 (895) want of food obliged the Danes to retire once more to Essex. At the end of this year and early in 895 (896) the Danes drew their ships up the Thames and Lea and fortified themselves twenty miles above London. A direct attack on the Danish lines failed, but later in the year Alfred saw a means of obstructing the river so as to prevent the egress of the Danish ships. The Danes realized that they were out-manoeuvred. They struck off north-westwards and wintered at Bridgenorth. The next year, 896 (897), they abandoned the struggle. Some retired to Northumbria, some to East Anglia; those who had no connexions in England withdrew to the continent. The long campaign was over. The result testifies to the confidence inspired by Alfred's character and generalship, and to the efficacy of the military reforms initiated by him. These were (1) the division of the fyrd or national militia into two parts, relieving each other at fixed intervals, so as to ensure continuity in military operations; (2) the establishment of fortified posts (burgs) and garrisons at certain points; (3) the enforcement of the obligations of thanehood on all owners of five hides of land, thus giving the king a nucleus of highly equipped troops. After the final dispersal of the Danish invaders Alfred turned his attention to the increase of the navy, and ships were built according to the king's own designs, partly to repress the ravages of the Northumbrian and East Anglian Danes on the coasts of Wessex, partly to prevent the landing of fresh hordes. This is not, as often asserted, the beginning of the English navy. There had been earlier naval operations under Alfred. One naval engagement was certainly fought under AEthelwulf (851), and earlier ones, possibly in 833 and 840. Nor were the new ships a great success, as we hear of them grounding in action and foundering in a storm. Much, too, was needed in the way of civil re-organization, especially in the districts ravaged by the Danes. In the parts of Mercia acquired by Alfred, the shire system seems now to have been introduced for the first time. This is the one grain of truth in the legend that Alfred was the inventor of shires, hundreds and tithings. The finances also would need careful attention; but the subject is obscure, and we cannot accept Asser's description of Alfred's appropriation of his revenue as more than an ideal sketch. Alfred's care for the administration of justice is testified both by history and legend; and the title ``protector of the poor'' was his by unquestioned right. Of the action of the witenagemot we do not hear very much under Alfred. That he was anxious to respect its rights is conclusively proved, but both the circumstances of the time and the character of the king would tend to throw more power into his hands. The legislation of Alfred probably belongs to the later part of the reign, after the pressure of the Danes had relaxed. The details of it cannot be discussed here. Asser speaks grandiosely of Alfred's relations with foreign powers, but little definite information is available. He certainly corresponded with Elias III., the patriarch of Jerusalem, and probably sent a mission to India. Embassies to Rome conveying the English alms to the pope were fairly frequent; while Alfred's interest in foreign countries is shown by the insertions which he made in his translation of Orosius. His relations to the Celtic princes in the southern half of the island are clearer. Comparatively early in his reign the South Welsh princes, owing to the pressure on them of North Wales and Mercia, commended themselves to Alfred. Later in the reign the North Welsh followed their example, and the latter co-operated with the English in the campaign of 893 (894). The Celtic principality in Cornwall, which seems to have survived at least till 926, must long have been practically dependent on Wessex. That Alfred sent alms to Irish as well as to continental monasteries may be accepted on Asser's authority; the visit of the three pilgrim ``Scots'' (i.e. Irish) to Alfred in 891 is undoubtedly authentic; the story that he himself in his childhood was sent to Ireland to be healed by St Modwenna, though mythical, may point to Alfred's interest in that island. The history of the church under Alfred is most obscure. The Danish inroads had told heavily upon it; the monasteries had been special points of attack, and though Alfred founded two or three monasteries and imported foreign monks, there was no general revival of monasticism under him. To the ruin of learning and education wrought by the Danes, and the practical extinction of the knowledge of Latin even among the clergy, the preface to Alfred's translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care bears eloquent testimony. It was to remedy these evils that he established a court school, after the example of Charles the Great; for this he imported scholars like Grimbald and John the Saxon from the continent and Asser from South Wales; for this, above all, he put himself to school, and made the series of translations for the instruction of his clergy and people, most of which still survive. These belong unquestionably to the later part of his reign, not improbably to the last four years of it, during which the chronicles are almost silent. Apart from the lost Handboc or Encheiridion, which seems to have been merely a commonplace-book kept by the king, the earliest work to be translated was the Dialogues of Gregory, a book enormously popular in the middle ages. In this case the translation was made by Alfred's great friend Werferth, bishop of Worcester, the king merely furnishing a preface. The next work to be undertaken was Gregory's Pastoral Care, especially for the benefit of the clergy. In this Alfred keeps very close to his original; but the introduction which he prefixed to it is one of the most interesting documents of the reign, or indeed of English history. The next two works taken in hand were historical, the Universal History of Orosius and Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People. The priority should probably be assigned to the Orosius, but the point has been much debated. In the Orosius, by omissions and additions, Alfred so remodels his original as to produce an almost new work; in the Bede the author's text is closely adhered to, no additions being made, though most of the documents and some other less interesting matters are omitted. Of late years doubts have been raised as to Alfred's authorship of the Bede translation. But the sceptics cannot be regarded as having proved their point. We come now to what is in many ways the most interesting of Alfred's works, his translation of Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, the most popular philosophical manual of the middle ages. Here again Alfred deals very freely with his original and though the late Dr G. Schepss showed that many of the additions to the text are to be traced not to Alfred himself, but to the glosses and commentaries which he used, still there is much in the work which is solely Alfred's and highly characteristic of his genius. It is in the Boethius that the oft-quoted sentence occurs: ``My will was to live worthily as long as I lived, and after my life to leave to them that should come after, my memory in good works.'' The book has come down to us in two MSS. only. In one of these the poems with which the original is interspersed are rendered into prose, in the other into alliterating verse. The authorship of the latter has been much disputed; but probably they also are by Alfred. Of the authenticity of the work as a whole there has never been any doubt. The last of Alfred's works is one to which he gave the title Blostman, i. e. ``Blooms'' or Anthology. The first half is based mainly on the Soliloquies of St Augustine, the remainder is drawn from various sources, and contains much that is Alfred's own and highly characteristic of him. The last words of it may be quoted; they form a fitting epitaph for the noblest of English kings. ``Therefore he seems to me a very foolish man, and very wretched, who will not increase his understanding while he is in the world, and ever wish and long to reach that endless life where all shall be made clear.'' Besides these works of Alfred's, the Saxon Chronicle almost certainly, and a Saxon Martyrology, of which fragments only exist, probably owe their inspiration to him. A prose version of the first fifty Psalms has been attributed to him; and the attribution, though not proved, is perfectly possible. How Alfred passed to ``the life where all things are made clear'' we do not know. The very year is uncertain. The arguments on the whole are in favour of 900. The day was the 26th of October. Alike for what he did and for what he was, there is none to equal Alfred in the whole line of English sovereigns; and no monarch in history ever deserved more truly the epithet of Great.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.—The chief original authorities for the reign of Alfred are the so-called Life by Asser (best edition by W. H. Stevenson, Clarendon Press, 1904); and the Saxon Chronicles (text and notes by Earle and Plummer, 2 vols., Clar. Press, 1892-1899; parallel texts and translation, Thorpe, 2 vols., 1861, Rolls Series; translation alone, Joseph Stevenson in Church Historians of England, vol. ii., 1853). The above sketch is based mainly on C. Plummer's Life and Times of Alfred the Great (Clar. Press, 1902). Of earlier biographies that by Pauli is still of great value: Konig AElfred (Berlin, 1851); Eng. trans. by Thorpe (Bohn, 1853). Of recent works mention may be made of Alfred the Great, Chapters on his Life and Times, by various authors, edited by Alfred Bowker (1899); Earle, The Alfred Jewel (Clar. Press, 1901).
For the bioliography of Alfred's works in general see Wulker, Grundriss zur Gesch. der angelsachsischen Litteratur, pp. 386-451 (Leipzig, 1885). Only the more recent and accessible editions are mentioned here. Laws: The Legal Code ofAElfred the Great (M. H. Turk, Halle, 1893). (For the Anglo-Saxon laws as a whole see Liebermann, Gesetze der Angelsachsen, Halle, 1898-1903. Earlier editions, Schmid, 1858; Thorpe, 1840.) Gregory's Dialogues: Hans Hecht, in Grein's Bibliothek der angels. Prosa (1900). Gregory's Pastoral Care: H. Sweet, for Early Eng. Text Society (1871—1872). (Dissertations by Wack and DeWitz, 1889.) Orosius: Thorpe (in his translation of Pauli, U. S. 1853); Bosworth (1859); Sweet, E.E.T.S. (1883). (Dissertation Schelling, Konig AElfred's . . . Orosius, Halle, 1886.) Bede: T. Miller, for E.E.T.S. (1890); Prof. Schipper, in Grein's Bibliothek (U.S. 1899). Boethius: W. J. Sedgfield (Clar. Press, 1899); translation by the same (1900). (Dissertation: G. Schepss, Archiv fur's Studium der neueren Sprachen, xciv. 14-160.) Blostman: First printed by Cockayne in the Shrine (1868-1869); reprinted, Englische Studien, xviii.; new edition by Hararove, Yale Studies in English, xiii. (1902); translation by the same, ib. xxii. (1904). (Dissertation: F. G. Hubbard, Modern Language Notes, ix. 522 ff.) Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: see above. Mortyrology: Cockayne, in the Shrine, v.s. Psalter: Thorpe (Clar. Press, 1855). (Dissertations: for Alfred's authorship, Wichmann, Anglia, xi. 19 ff.; against, J. D. Bruce, The Anglo-Saxon Version of the Book of Psalms, Baltimore, 1894.) (C. PL.)
1 Where alternative dates are given the later date is that of the Saxon Chronicle. But the evidence of the Continental Chronicles makes it probable that the Saxon Chronicle is a year in advance of the true chronology in this part.
ALFRED ERNEST ALBERT, duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and duke of Edinburgh (1844-1900), second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria, was born at Windsor Castle on the 6th of August 1844. In 1856 it was decided that the prince, in accordance with his own wishes, should enter the navy, and a separate establishment was accordingly assigned to him, with Lieutenant Sowell, R. E., as governor. He passed a most creditable examination for midshipman in August 1858, and being appointed to the ``Euryalus,'' at once began to work hard at the practical part of his profession. In July 1860, while on this ship, he paid an official visit to the Cape, and made a very favourable impression both on the colonials and on the native chiefs. On the abdication of Otto, king of Greece, in 1862, Prince Alfred was chosen by the whole people to succeed him, but political conventions of long standing rendered it impossible for the British government to accede to their wishes. The prince therefore remained in the navy, and was promoted lieutenant on the 24th of February 1863 and captain on the 23rd of February 1866, being then appointed to the command of the ``Galatea.'' On attaining his majority in 1865 the prince was created duke of Edinburgh and earl of Ulster, with an annuity of L. 15,000 granted by parliament. While still in command of the ``Galatea'' the duke started from Plymouth on the 24th of January 1867 for his voyage round the world. On the 11th of June 1867 he left Gibraltar and reached the Cape on the 24th of July, and landed at Glenelg, South Australia, on the 31st of October. Being the first English prince to visit Australia, the duke was received with the greatest enthusiasm. During his stay of nearly five months he visited Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Tasmania; and it was on his second visit to Sydney that, while attending a public picnic at Clonfert in aid of the Sailors' Home, an Irishman named O'Farrell shot him in the back with a revolver. The wound was fortunately not dangerous, and within a month the duke was able to resume command of his ship and return home. He reached Spithead on the 26th of June 1868, after an absence of seventeen months. The duke's next voyage was to India, where he arrived in December 1869. Both there and at Hong Kong, which he visited on the way, he was the first British prince to set foot in the country. The native rulers of India vied with one another in the magnificence of their entertainments during the duke's stay of three months. On the 23rd of January 1874 the marriage of the duke to the grand-duchess Marie Alexandrovna, only daughter of Alexander II., emperor of Russia, was celebrated at St Petersburg, and the bride and bridegroom made their public entry into London on the 12th of March. The duke still devoted himself to his profession, showing complete mastery of his duties and unusual skill in naval tactics. He was promoted rear-admiral on the 30th of December 1878; vice-admiral, 10th of November 1882; admiral, 18th of October 1887; and received his baton as admiral of the Fleet, 3rd of June 1893. He commanded the Channel fleet, 1883-1884; the Mediterranean fleet, 1886-1889; and was commander-in-chief at Davenport, 1890- 1893. He always paid the greatest attention to his offiicial duties and was most efficient as an admiral.
On the death of his uncle, Ernest II., duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, on the 22nd of August 1893, the vacant duchy fell to the duke of Edinburgh, for the prince of Wales had renounced his right to the succession. At first regarded with some coldness as a ``foreigner,'' he gradually gained popularity, and by the time of his death, on the 30th of July 1900, he had completely won the good opinion of his subjects. The duke was exceedingly fond of music and an excellent violinist, and took a prominent part in establishing the Royal College of music. He was also a keen collector of glass and ceramic ware, and his collection, valued at half a million of marks, was presented by his widow to the ``Veste Coburg,'' near Coburg. When he became duke of Saxe-Coburg he surrendered his English allowance of L. 15,000 a year, but the L. 10,000 granted in addition by parliament on his marriage he retained in order to keep up Clarence House. The duke had one son, who died unmarried on the 6th of February 1899, and four daughters. The third daughter, Princess Alexandra Louisa Olga Victoria, married the hereditary prince Ernest of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, who became regent of the duchy of Coburg during the minority of the deceased duke's nephew, the young duke of Albany, to whom the succession fell. (G. F. B.)
ALFRED, a village in the township of Alfred, Allegany county, New York, U.S.A., about 75 m. S.W. of Buffalo. Pop. of the township, including the village (1900), 1615; (1910 U. S. census) 1590. Pop. of the village (1900) 756; (1910 U. S. census) 759. The township is served, at Alfred station, by the Erie railway. The village, which is connected by stage with the station, is situated at the junction of two valleys and commands delightful views of mountain scenery. On the west slope of pine Hill is Alfred University (co-educational), which embraces a College (non-sectarian), an academy (non-sectarian) and a theological seminary (Seventh-Day Baptist). Closely associated with it also, and under the management of the university trustees, is the New York State School of Clay-Working and Ceramics (1900), one of the most efficient schools of the kind in the country. In 1908 the legislature of New York appropriated $80,000 for the establishment of a state school of agriculture in connexion with the university. The institution had its beginning in 1836 in a private school. This developed into an academy, which in 1843 was incorporated as Alfred Academy and Teachers' Seminary; in 1857 the university was chartered under its present name. The principal industry of the village is the manufacture of roofing tiles. The township of Alfred lies within the territory purchased by Robert Morris in 1791. He sold it in the same year to a company resident in London, England. Their agent sold most of it to settlers and, it is said, named the township, when it was organized in 1806, in honour of Alfred the Great. The first settlement within its present limits was made in 1807. For several years most of the settlers were Seventh-Day Baptists, and in 1812 they organized a church here. The village of Alfred was chartered in 1887.
J. S. Minard, Allegany County and its People (Alfred, 1896).
ALFRETON, a market town in the mid-parliamentary division of Derbyshire, England, 14 m N. by E. of Derby, on the Midland railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 17,505. It lies at a considerable elevation above the valley of a small stream tributary to the Derwent. The church of St Martin is Early English and later. The neighbourhood abounds in ironworks, collieries, quarries and potteries, and is thickly populated. To the north-east of Alfreton are South Normanton (pop. 5170), Blackwell (4144) and Tibshelf (3432); to the north Shirland (3929), to the south Ironville and other busy industrial villages. The foundation of Alfreton is traditionally ascribed to King Alfred.
ALFUROS (ALFURES, HORAFORAS), a term of no ethnological value applied by the Malays to all the uncivilized non- Mahommedan peoples in the eastern portion of the Malay Archipelago. Its origin is uncertain, but its meaning is ``wild'' or ``uncivilized.'' The term is not restricted to the aborigines, but is far more frequently used to describe the tribes of Malayan blood.
ALGAE. The Latin word alga seems to have been the equivalent of the English word ``seaweed'' and probably stood for any or all of the species of plants which form the ``wrack'' of a seashore.
Classification.
When the word ``Algae'' came to be employed in botanical classification as the name of a class, an arbitrary limitation had to be set to its signification, and this was not always in keeping with its original meaning. The absence of differentiation into root, stem and leaf which prevails among seaweeds, seems, for example, to have led Linnaeus to employ the term in the Genera Plantarum for a sub-class of Cryptogamia, the members of which presented this character in a greater or less degree. Of the fifteen genera included by Linnaeus among algae, not more than six—viz. Chara, Fucus, Diva and Conferva, and in part Tremella and Byssus—would to-day, in any sense in which the term is employed, be regarded as algae. The excluded genera are distributed among the liverworts, lichens and fungi; but notwithstanding the great advance in knowledge since the time of Linnaeus, the difficulty of deciding what limits to assign to the group to be designated Algae still remains. It arises from the fact that algae, as generally understood, do not constitute a homogeneous group, suggesting a descent from a common stock. Among them there exist, as will be seen hereafter, many well-marked but isolated natural groups, and their inclusion in the larger group is generally felt to be a matter of convenience rather than the expression of a belief in their close inter-relationship. Efforts are therefore continually being made by successive writers to exclude certain outlying sub-groups, and to reserve the term Algae for a central group reconstituted on a more natural basis within narrower limits.
It is perhaps desirable, in an article like this, to treat of algae in the widest possible sense in which the term may be used, an indication being at the same time given of the narrower senses in which it has been proposed to employ it. Interpreted in this way, the place of algae in the vegetable kingdom may be shown by means of a
| Myxomycetes| | Thallophyta | Fungi| Cryptogamia | |AlgaeThe Vegetable | | BryophytaKingdom | |Pteridophyta|| | Gymnosperms| Phanerogamia |Angiosperms|
Algae in this wide sense may be briefly described as the aggregate of those simpler forms of plant life usually devoid, like the rest of the Thallophyta, of differentiation into root, stem and leaf; but, unlike other Thallophyta, possessed of a colouring matter; by means of which they are enabled, in the presence of sunlight, to make use of the carbonic acid gas of the atmosphere as a source of carbon. It is true that certain Bryophyta (Marchantiaceae, Anthoceroteae) possess a thalloid structure similar to that of Thallophyta, and are at the same time possessed of the colouring matter of the Green Algae. Their life-cycle, however, the structure of the reproductive organs and their whole organization proclaim them to be Bryophyta (q.v..) On the other hand, certain undoubted animals (Stentor, Hydra, Bonellia) are provided with a green colouring matter by means of which they make use of atmospheric carbonic acid. A more important consideration is the occasional absence of this colour in species, or groups of species, with, in other respects, algal affinities. Such aberrant forms are to be regarded in the same light as Cuscuta and Orobanchaceae, for example, among Phanerogams. As these non-green plants do not cease to be classed with other Phanerogams, so must the forms in question be retained among algae. In all cases the loss of the colouring matter is associated with an incapacity to take up carbon from so simple a compound as carbonic acid
It might be mentioned here that the whole group of the Fungi (q.v.),with its many thousands of species, is now generally regarded as having been derived from algae, and the system of classification of fungi devised by Brefeld is based upon this belief. The similarity of the morphological characters of one group of fungi to those of certain algae has earned for it the name Phycomycetes or alga-fungi.
Further discussion of the general characters of algae will be deferred in order to take a brief survey of the subdivisions of the group. For this purpose there will be adopted the classification of algae into four sub-groups, founded on the nature of the colouring matters present in the plant:— I. CYANOPHYCEAE, or Blue-green Algae. II. CHLOROPHYCEAE, or Green Algae. III. PHAEOPHYCEAE, or Brown Algae. IV. RHODOPHYCEAE, or Red Algae. The merits and demerits of this system will appear during the description of the characters of the members of the several subdivisions.
I. CYANOPHYCEAE.—This group derives its name from the circumstance that the cells contain in addition to the green colouring matter, chlorophyll, a blue-green colouring matter to which the term phycocyanin has been applied.
Sub-divisions.
To the eye, however, members of this group present a greater variety of colour than those of any other—yellow, brown, olive, red, purple, violet and variations of all these being known. They undoubtedly represent the lowest grade of algal life, and their distribution rivals that of the Green Algae. They occur in the sea, in fresh water, on moist earth, on damp rocks and on the bark of trees. Certain species are regularly found in the intercellular spaces of higher plants; such are species of Nostoc in the thallus of Anthoceros, the leaves of Azolla and the roots of Cycads. Many of them enter into the structure of the lichen-thallus, as the so-called gonidia. It is remarkable that species belonging to the Oscillatoriaceae are known to flourish in hot springs, the temperature of which rises as high as 85 deg. C.
The thallus may be unicellular or multicellular. When unicellular, it may consist of isolated cells, but more commonly the cells are held together in a common jelly (Chroococcaceae) derived from the outer layers of the cell-wall. The multicellular species consist of filaments, branched or unbranched, which arise by the repeated divisions of the cells in parallel planes, no formation of mucilage occurring in the dividing walls. Such filaments may not give rise to mucilage on the lateral surface either, in which case they are said to be free; when mucilage does occur on the lateral wall, it appears as the sheath surrounding either the single filament, or a sheaf of filaments of common origin. The mucilage may also form an embedding substance similar to that of Chroococcaceae, in which the filaments lie parallel or radiate from a common centre (Rivulariaceae). The cells of the filament may be all alike, and growth may occur equally in all parts (Oscillatoriaceae); or certain cells (heterocysts) may become marked off by their larger size and the transparency of their contents; in which case growth may still be distributed equally throughout (Nostoc), or the filament may be attached where the heterocyst arises, and grow out at the opposite extremity into a fine hair (Rivulariaceae). An African form (Camptothrix), devoid of heterocysts and hair-like at both extremities, has recently been described. Branching has been described as ``false'' and ``true.'' The former arises when a filament in a sheath, either in consequence of growth in length beyond the capacity of the sheath to accommodate it,
FIG, 1.—Cyanophyceae, variously magnified.
A. Gloeocapsa sp.,colony in mucilage.
B. Phormidium sp., single filament with hormogonium.
C. Microcoleus sp., several filaments in common sheath.
D. Nostoc sp., young colony-filament with heterocysts.
E. Scytonema sp., false branching.
F. Rivularia sp.
G. Stigonema sp., with hormogonium and true branching.
H. Spirulina sp.
(From Engler and Prantl, Pflanzenfamilien, by permission of Wilhelm Engelmann.)
or because of the decay of a cell, becomes interrupted by breaking, and the free ends slip past one another. ``True'' branching arises only by the longitudinal division of a cell of a filament and the lateral outgrowth of one of the cells resulting from the division (Sirosiohonaceae).
The nature of the contents of the cells of Cyanophyceae has given rise to considerable controversy. The cells are for the most part exceedingly minute, and are not easy to free from their colouring matters, so that investigation has been attended with great difficulty. Occupying as these algae do perhaps the lowest grade of plant life, it is a matter of interest to ascertain whether a nucleus or chromatophore is differentiated in their cells, or whether the functions and properties of these bodies are diffused through the whole protoplast. It is certain that the centre of the cell, which is usually non-vacuolated, is occupied by protoplasm of different properties from the peripheral region; and A. Fischer has further established the fact that the peripheral mass, which is a hollow sphere in spherical cells, and either a hollow cylinder or barrel-shaped body in filamentous forms, must be regarded as the single chromatophore of the Cyanophyceous cell. But what precisely is the nature of the central mass is still uncertain. Some investigators, such as R. Hegler, F. G. Kohl and E. W. Olive, claim that this body is a true nucleus comparable with that of the higher plants. It is said to undergo division by a mitosis essentially of the same character, with the formation of a spindle and the differentiation of chromosomes. It is further stated by Olive that the chromosomes undergo longitudinal fission, and that for the same species the same number of chromosomes appear at each division. H. Wager speaks with greater reserve, acknowledging, however, the central body to be a nucleus of a rudimentary type, but devoid of nuclear membrane and nucleolus. He thinks it may possibly originate in the vacuolization of the central region, and the accumulation of chromatin granules therein. He finds no spindle fibres or true chromosomes, and considers the division direct, not indirect. With reference to the existence of a chromatophore, he with others finds the colouring matter localized in granules in the peripheral region, but does not consider these individually or in the aggregate as chromatophores. Among other contents of the cell, fatty substances and tannin are known. A curious adaptation seems to occur in certain floating forms, in the presence of a gas-vacuole, which may be made to vary its volume with varying pressure. There is evidence that the dividing wall of filamentous forms is deeply pitted, as is found to be the case in red algae. Reproduction is chiefly effected by the vegetative method. Asexual reproductive cells are not infrequent, but sexual reproduction even in its initial stages is unknown. Nor is motility by means of cilia known in the group. In the unicellular forms, cell-division involves multiplication of the plant. In all the multicellular plants of this group which have been adequately investigated, vegetative multiplication by means of what are known as hormogonia has been found to occur. These are short segments of filaments consisting of a few cells which disengage themselves from the ambient jelly, if it be present, in virtue of a peculiar creeping movement which they possess at this stage. After a time they come to rest and give rise to new colonies. True reproduction of the asexual kind occurs, however, in the formation of sporangia, particularly in the Chamaesiohonaceae. Here the contents of certain cells break up endogenously into a great number of spores, which are distributed as a fine dust. Resting spores are also known. In these cases, certain cells of a colony of unicellular plants or of the filaments of multicellular plants enlarge greatly and thicken their wall. When unfavourable external conditions supervene and the ordinary cells become atrophied, these cells persist and reproduce the plant with the return of more favourable conditions. The Oscillatoriaceae are capable of a peculiar oscillatory movement, which has earned for them their name, and which enables them to move through considerable distances. It is not clear how the movement is effected, though it has frequently been the subject of careful investigation.
With the Cyanophyceae must be included, as their nearest allies, the Bacteriaceae (see BACTERIOLOGY.) Notwithstanding the absence of chlorophyll, and the consequent parasitic or saprophytic habit, Bacteriaceae agree in so many morphological features with Cyanophyceae that the affinity can hardly be doubted.
A census of the Cyanophyceae with their two main groups is given below:—
1. Coccogoneae—2 families, 29 genera, 253 species. 2. Hormogoneae—6 families, 59 genera, 701 species. (Engler and Prantl's Pflanzenfamilien, 1900)
II. CHLOROPHYCEAE.—This group includes those algae in which the green colouring matter, chlorophyll, is not accompanied by a second colouring matter, as it is in other groups. It consists of three subdivisions—Conjugatae, Euchlorophyceae and Characeae. Of these the first and last are relatively small and sharply defined families, distinguished from the second family, which forms the bulk of the group, by characters so diverse that their inclusion with them in one larger group can only be justified on the ground of convenience. Chlorophyceae include both marine and freshwater plants.
Euchlorophyceae in their turn have been until recently regarded as made up of the three series of families—Protococcales, Confervales and Siphonales. As the result of recent investigations by two Swedish algologists, Bohlin and Luther, it has been proposed to make a re-classification of a far-reaching nature. Algae are withdrawn from each of the three series enumerated above and consolidated into an entirely new group. In these algae, the colouring matter is said to be yellowish-green, not strictly green, and contained in numerous small discoid chromatophores which are devoid of pyrenoids. The products of assimilation are stored up in the form of a fatty substance and not starch. A certain inequality in the character of the two cilia of the zoospores of some of the members of the group has earned for it the title Heterokontae, from the Greek kontos, a punting-pole. In consonance with this name, its authors propose to re-name the Conjugatae; Akontae and Oedogoniaceae with a chaplet of cilia become Stephanokontae, and the algae remaining over in the three series from which the Heterokontae and Stephanokontae are withdrawn become Isokontae. Conjugatae, Protococcales and Characeae are exclusively freshwater; Confervales and Siphonales are both freshwater and marine, but the latter group attains its greatest development in the sea. Some Chlorophyceae are terrestrial in habit, usually growing on a damp substratum, however. Trentepohlia grows on rocks and can survive considerable desiccation. Phycopeltis grows on the surface of leaves, Phyllobium and Phyllosiphon in their tissues. Gomontia is a shell-boring alga, FIG. 2.—Chlorophyceae, variously magnified.
A. Chlamydomonas sp., unicellular; chr., chromatophore; p., pyrenoid; n., nucleus; p.v., pulsating vacuoles; e.s., eyespot.
B1. Volvox sp., with a, antheridia, and o, oogonia.
B2. Volvox sp., surface view of a single cell showing connexions.
C. Pandorina sp., a 16-celled colony.
D. Hydrodictyon, a single mesh surrounded by 6 cells.
E. Microspora sp., showing H-pieces in the wall.
F. Entoderma sp., endophytic in Ectocarpus.
G. Coleochaete sp., growing as a plate.
H. Oedogonium sp., intercalated growth by insertion of new piece (a) leaving caps.
K. Struvea sp., showing branches forming a net-work.
L. Caulerpa sp., showing portion of axis with leaf-like and root- like appendages.
M1. Chara sp., axis with leaf-like appendages and a branch.
M2. Chara sp., apical region.
N. Botrydium, a simple siphonaceous alga with root-like attachment.
O. Acetabularia Mediterranea, mushroom-like calcareous siphonaceous alga.
(A, C, E, F, G, H, K, M1, M2, from from Engler and Prantl,Pflanzenfamilien, by permission of Wilhelm Engelmann; B1,N, from Vines, Student's Text Book of Botany, by permission ofSwan Sonnenschein and Co.; B2, D, O from Oltmanns, Morphologieu. Biologie der Algen, by permission of Gustav Fischer.)
Dermatophyton grows on the carapace of the tortoise and Trichophilus in the hairs of the sloth. Certain Protococcales and Confervales exist as the gonidia of the lichenthallus.
The thallus is of more varied structure in this group than in any other. In the simplest case it may consist of a single cell, which may remain free during the whole of the greater part of its existence, or be loosely aggregated together within a common mucilage, or be held together by the adhesion of the cell-walls at the surface of contact. These aggregations or colonies, as they are termed, may assume the form of a plate, a ring, a solid sphere, a hollow sphere, a perforate sphere, a closed net, or a simple or branched filament. It is not easy in all cases to draw a distinction between a colony of planes and a multicellular individual. in a Volvox sphere, for example, there is a marked protoplasmic continuity between all the cells of the colony. The Ulvaceae, the thallus of which consists of laminae, one or more cells thick, or hollow tubes, probably represent a still more advanced stage in the passaae of a colony into a multicellelar plant. Here there is some amount of localization of growth and distinction of parts. It is only in such cases as Volvox and Ulvaceae that there is any pretension to the formation of a true parenchyma within the limits of the Chlorophyceae. In the whole series of the Confervales, the thallus consists of filaments branched or unbranched, attached at one extremity, and growing almost wholly at the free end. The branches end in fine hairs in Chaetophoraceae. In Coleochaetaceae the branches are often welded into a plate, simulating a parenchyma. In all Conjugatae and most Protococcales, and in the bulk of the Confervales, the thallus consists of a cell or cells, the Protoplast of which contains a single nucleus. In Hydrodictyaceae, Cladophoraceae, Sphaeropleaceae and Gomontiaceae this is no longer the case. Instead of a single relatively large nucleus, each cell is found to contain many small nuclei, and is spoken of as a coenocyte. This character becomes still more pronounced in the large group of the Siphonales. Valoniaceae and Dasycladaceae are partially septate, but elsewhere no cellulose partitions occur, and the thallus is more or less the continuous tube from which the group is named. Yet the siphonaceous algae may assume great variety of form and reach a high degree of differentiation. Protosiphon and Botrydium, on the one hand, are minute vesicles attached to muddy surfaces by rhizoids; Caulerpa, on the other, presents a remarkable instance of the way in which much the same external morphology as that of cormophytes has been reached by a totally different internal structure. Many Siphonales are encrusted with lime like Corallina among Red Algae. Penicillus is brush-like, Hallimeda and Cymopolia are jointed, Acetabularia has much the same external form as an expanded Coprinus, Neomeris simulates the fertile shoot of Equisetum with its densely packed whorled branches, and in Microdictyon, Anadyomene, Struvea and Boodlea the branches, spreading in one plane, become bound together in a more or less close network. Characeae are separated from other Chloroohlceae by a long interval, and present the highest degree of differentiation of parts known among Green Algae. Attached to the bottom of pools by means of rhizoids, the thallus of Characeae grows upwards by means of an apical cell, giving off whorled appendages at regular intervals. The appendages have a limited growth; but in connexion with each whorl there arise, singly or in pairs, branches which have the same unlimited growth as the main axis. There is thus a close approach to the external morphology of the higher plants. The streaming of the protoplasm, known elsewhere among Chlorophyceae, is a conspicuous feature of the cells of Characeae.
The Chlorophyceae excel all other groups of algae in the magnitude and variety of form of the chlorophyll-bodies. In Ulva and Mesocarpus the chromatophore is a single plate, which in the latter genus places its edge towards the incident light; in Spirogyra they are spiral bands embedded in the primordial utricle; in Zygnema they are a pair of stellate masses, the rays of which branch peripherally; in Oedogonium they are longitudinally-disposed anastomosing bands; in Desmids plates with irregular margins; in Cladophora polyhedral plates: in Vaucheria minute elliptical bodies occurring in immense numbers. Embedded in the chromatophore, much in the same way as the nucleus is embedded in the cytoplasm, are the pyrenoids. Unknown in Cyanophyceae and Phoeophyeeae, known only in Bangiaceae and Nemalion among Rhodophyceae, they are of frequent occurrence among Chlorophyceae, excepting Characeae. Sometimes several pyrenoids occur in each chloroplast, as in Mesocarpus and Spirogyra; sometimes only an occasional chloroplast contains pyrenoid at all, as in Cadophora. The pyrenoid seems to be of proteid nature and gelatinous consistency, and to arise as a new formation or by division of pre-existing pyrenoids. When carbon-assimilation is active, starch-granules crowd upon the surface of the pyrenoid and completely obscure it from view.
Special provision for vegetative multiplication is not common among Chlorophyceae. Valonia and Caulerpa among Siphonales detach portions of their thallus, which are capable of independent growth. In Caulerpa no other means of multiplication is as yet known. In Characeae no fewer than four methods of vegetative reproduction have been described, and the facility with which buds and branches are in these cases detached has been adduced as an evidence of affinity with Bryophyta, which, as a class, are distinguished by their ready resort to vegetative reproduction.
With regard to true reproduction, which is characterized by the formation of special cells, the group Euchlorophyceae is characterized by the production of zoospores (Gr. zoon, animal, spora, seed); that is to say, cells capable of motility through the agency of cilia. Such ciliary motion is known in the adult condition of the cells of Volvocaceae, but where this is not the case the reproductive cells are endowed with motility for a brief period. The zoospore is usually a pyriform mass of naked protoplasm, the beaked end of which where the cilia arise is devoid of colouring matter. A reddish-brown body, known as the eyespot, is usually situated near the limits of the hyaline portion, and in the protoolasm contractile vacuoles similar to those of lower animals have been occasionally detected. The movement of the zoospore is effected by the lashing of the cilia and is in the direction of the beak, while the zoospore slowly rotates on Botrydium and Hydrodictyon only one is present; in certain species of Cladophora four; in Dasycladus a chaplet, and in Oedogonium a ring of many cilia. The so-called zoospore of Vaucheria is a coenocyte covered over with paired cilia corresponding in position to nuclei lying below. In all other cases, zoospores are uninucleate bodies. Zoospores arise in cells of ordinary size and form termed zoosporangia. In unicellular forms (Sphaerella) the thallus becomes transformed into a zoosporangium at the reproductive stage. In the zoosporangia of Oedogonium, Tetraspora and Coleochaete the contents become transformed into a single zoospore. In most cases repeated division seems to take place, and the final number is represented by some power of two. In coenocytic forms the zoospores would seem to arise simultaneously, probably because many nuclei are already present. The escape of zoospores is effected by the degeneration of the sporangial wall (Chaetophora), or by a pore (Cladophora), a slit (Pediastrum ), or a circular fracture (Oedogonium). Zoospores are of two kinds: (1) Those which come to rest and germinate to form a new plant; these are asexual and are zoospores proper. (2) Those which are unable to germinate of themselves, but fuse with another cell, the product giving rise to a new individual; these are sexual and are zoogametes (Gr. zoon, animal, and gametes, gamete, husband, wife). When two similar zoogametes fuse, the process is conjugation, and the product a zygospore (Gr. zugon, yoke). Usually, however, only one of the fusing cells is a zoogamete, the other gamete being a much larger resting cell. In such a case the zoogamete is male, is called an antherozoid or spermatozoid, and arises in an antheridium; the larger gamete is an oosphere and arises in an oogonium. The fusion is now known as fertilization, and the product is an oospore. Reproduction by conjugation is also known as isogamy, by fertilization as oogamy. When zoospores come to rest, a new cell is formed and germination ensues at once. When zygospores and oospores are produced a new cell-wall is also formed, but a long period of rest ensues. All investigation goes to show that an essential part of sexual union is the fusion of the two nuclei concerned. It is interesting to know, on the authority of Oltmanns, that when the oosphere is forming in the oogonium of Vaucheria, there is a retrocession of all the included nuclei but one. that the antherozoid of Vaucheria contains a single nucleus had been inferred before.
From a comparison of those Euchlorophyceae which have been most closely investigated, it appears probable that sexual reproductive cells have in the course of evolution arisen as the result of specialization among asexual reproductive cells, and that in turn oogamous reproduction has arisen as the result of differentiation of the two conjugating cells into the smaller male gamete and the larger male gamete. It would further appear that oogamous reproduction has arisen independently in each of the three main groups of Euchlorophyceae, viz. Ptotococcales, Siphonales and Confervales. Thus among Volvocaceae, a family of Protococcales, while in some of the genera (Chloraster, Sphondylomorum) no sexual union has as yet been observed, in others (Pandorina, Chlorogonium, Stephanosphaera, Sphaerella) conjugation of similar gametes takes place, in others still (Phacotus, Eudorina, Volvox) the union is of the nature of fertilization. No other family of Protococcales has advanced beyond the stage of isogamous reproduction. Again, among Siphonales only one family (Vaucheriaceae) has reached the stage of oogamy, although an incipient heterogamy is said to occur in two other families (Codiaceae, Bryopsidaceae). Elsewhere among Siphonales, in those cases where reproductive cells are known, the reproduction is either isogamous or asexual. Among Confervales there is no family in which sexual reproduction—isogamy or oogamy—is not known to occur among some of the component species, and as many as four families (Cylindrocapsaceae, Sphaeropleaceae, Oedogoniaceae, Coleochaetaceae) are oogamous. On these, as well as other grounds. Confervales are regarded as having attained to the highest rank among Euchlorophyceae. Although the phenomena attending isogamous and oogamous reproduction respectively are essentially the same in all cases, slight variations in both instances appear in different families, attributable doubtless to the independent origin of the process in different groups. Thus, although isogamy consists in typical cases of a union of naked motile gametes by a fusion which begins at the beaked ends, and results in the formation of an immotile spherical zygote surrounded by a cell-wall, in Leptosira it is noticeable that the fusion begins at the blunt end; in a species of Chlamydomonas the two gametes are each included in a cell-wall before fusion; and in many cases the zygote retains for some time its motility with the double number of cilia. Again, in oogamous reproduction, while in general only one oosphere is differentiated in the oogonium, in Sphaeroplea several oospheres arise in each oogonium; and while the oospheres usually contract away from the oogonial wall, acquiring for themselves a new cell-wall after fertilization, in Coleochaete the oosphere remains throughout in contact with the oogonial wall. The oosphere is in all cases fertilized while still within the oogonium, the antherozoids being admitted by means of a pore. There is usually distinguishable upon the surface of the oosphere an area free from chlorophyll, known as the receptive spot, at which the fusion with the antherozoid takes place; and in many cases, before fertilization, a small mucilaginous mass has been observed to separate itself off from the oosphere at this point and to escape through the pore. In Coleochaete the oogonial wall is drawn out into a considerable tube, which is provided with an apical pore, and this tube has a somewhat similar appearance to the imperforate trichogyne of Florideae to be hereafter described. In certain species of Oedogonium minute male plantlets, known as dwarf males, become attached to the female plant in the neighbourhood of the oogonia, thus facilitating fertilization. Indeed the genus Oedogonium exhibits a high degree of specialization in its reproductive system, considering that its thallus has not advanced beyond the stage of an unbranched filament.
Many Euchlorophyceae are endowed with both asexual and sexual reproduction. Such are Coleochaete, Oedogonium, Cylindrocapsa, Ulothrix, Vaucheria, Volvox, &c. In others only the asexual method is yet known. When a species resorts to both methods, it is generally found that the asexual method prevails in the early part of the vegetative period and the sexual towards the close of that period. This is in consonance with the facts already mentioned that zoospores germinate forthwith, and that the sexually-produced cell or zygote enters upon a period of rest. It is known that zoogametes, which usually conjugate, may, when conjugation fails, germinate directly (Sphaerella.) In rare cases the oosphere has been known to germinate without fertilization (Oedogonium, Cylindrocapsa.) The germination of a zygospore or oospore is effected by the rupture of an outer cuticularized exosporium; then the cell may protrude an inner wall, the endosporium, and grow out into the new plant ( Vaucheria), or the contents may break up into a first brood of zoospores. It is held that in Coleochaetea parenchyma results from the division of the oospore, from each cell of which a zoospore arises.
Reproduction is also effected among Euchlorophyceae by means of aplanospores and akinetes. Aplanospores would seem to represent zoospores arrested in their development; without reaching the stage of motility, they germinate within the sporangium. Akinetes are ordinary thallus cells, which on account of their acquisition of a thick wall are capable of surviving unfavourable conditions. Both aplanospores and akinetes may germinate with or without the formation of zoospores at the initial stage.