| 释义 |
red snow
1. Snow reddened by a kind of alga (Protococcus nivalis) common in Arctic and Alpine regions.
1678Phil. Trans. XIII. 976 On St. Josephs day, upon the Mountains call'd Le Langhe, there fell..a great quantity of red, or if you please of bloody Snow. 1820Bauer in Ibid. CX. 165 The fungi, which constitute the colouring matter of the red snow, discovered in Baffin's Bay..1818. 1820Edin. Phil. Jrnl. III. 307 (heading) Observations on the red snow of Mount St. Bernard. Ibid., Some imperfect observations on the red snow of the Alps were made by M. Saussure in 1778, and the result of them appeared in the 3d volume of his Travels. 1866Chambers' Encycl. s.v., It is not impossible that animal as well as vegetable life may exist in red snow, and that real animalcules may have been observed. 1894J. W. Moore Meteorol. xx. 236 Red snow and green snow have been observed in the Arctic Regions and elsewhere. 1912Q. Jrnl. R. Meteorol. Soc. XXXVIII. 220 The red snow first attracted attention because the hoof-prints of the pack animals..were observed to be ‘splotched with red as if the snow-crust had cut the mules feet and dyed the snow with drops of blood’. 1933E. Hawks Bk. of Air & Water Wonders vii. 145 Red snow was known to Pliny, and was attributed by him to a dust with which the snow became covered after it had lain for some time on the ground... The phenomenon of red snow is due to the presence of some genus of algæ, scientifically known as Protococcus nivalis. 1973Islander (Victoria, B.C.) 17 June 5/2 The three explorers saw white ptarmigan, and the unique ‘red snow’ of the area.
2. transf. The alga which gives a red colouring to snow.
1825Carmichael in App. Parry's Jrnl. 2nd Voy. 429 On the whole, I should think..that you may safely arrange the Red Snow among the Palmellæ. 1845Darwin Voy. Nat. xv. (1890) 345 On several patches of the snow I found the Protococcus nivalis, or red snow. 1861H. Macmillan Footn. fr. Page Nature 145 Red snow..has been discovered spreading over decayed leaves and mosses on the borders of small lakes.
3. attrib., as red-snow shower; red-snow alga or plant = sense 2.
1826in Loudon Encycl. Plants 928 The most remarkable red-snow shower was that which fell..[in] March 1823,..in Tuscany. Ibid., The Lepraria Kermesina, which..is considered only a particular state of the red-snow plant itself. 1866Chambers' Encycl. s.v., The red snow plant consists, in its mature state, of brilliant globules like fine garnets, seated on, but not immersed in, a gelatinous mass. 1869Spencer Princ. Psychol. (1872) I. iii. ii. 295 Of those classed with the vegetal kingdom, may be instanced the..red snow alga. |