‖ alga
(ˈælgə)
Pl. algæ (ˈældʒiː).
[L. alga sea-weed.]
A sea-weed; in pl. One of the great divisions of Cryptogamic plants, including sea-weeds and kindred fresh-water plants, and a few aerial species.
| 1551 Turner Herbal (1568) 110 Alga whiche is a common name vnto a great parte of see herbes..is commonly called in englyshe see wrak. a 1637 B. Jonson Masques at Crt. (T.) Oceanus was garlanded with alga, or sea-grass. 1660 Dryden Astr. Red. 119 With alga who the sacred altar strews. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., The alga's are some marine..others fluviatile. 1794 Martyn Rousseau's Bot. x. 114 Algæ, having..the seeds either like a meal on the leaves or inclosed in bladders. 1832 Lyell Princ. Geol. II. 78 These banks of algæ in the Northern Atlantic. 1849 M. Somerville Connex. Phys. Sc. xxvii. 301 The snow itself..produces a red alga. |