Definition of "protococcus" []

• A genus of minute unicellular algæ including the red snow plant (Protococcus nivalis). (noun)

Gnu Collaboartive International Dictionary of English: licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

• "The commonest of these is cell division, as seen in unicellular plants, such as protococcus, where the one cell which composes the plant simply divides into two, and each newly formed cell is then a complete plant."
• "As to the "red snow" of polar and mountainous regions, we have no opposition, because that "snow" has never been seen to fall from the sky: it is a growth of micro-organisms, or of a "protococcus," that spreads over snow that is on the ground."
• "Where the ordinary plants cease to exist the snowy protococcus holds undisputed sway on the extensive snow fields."