introduction

Aulacodiscus crusc  
The CAUP (Charles University in Prague) image database of algae is based on the heritage of the German University which was part of the Charles University in the second half of the 19th century to the 1945. The culture collection of algae originated in 1961 from strains isolated by Bohuslav Fott and by Ernst Georg Pringsheim. Most of the permanent slides were made by Pfeiffer von Wellheim, J Lütkemüller, JD Möller, J Bourgogne and by F Sigmund. The herbarium specimens which were collected mainly in Mediterranean were prepared by Titius from Triest and by FM von Kirchsberg.
 
The CAUP image database follows the aims of other internet databases created by scientific institutions. Digitalised specimens of the collection have considerable value in studies regarding taxonomy, distribution, diversity and ecology.
 
The CAUP image database includes 1,404 images of cultures (mostly green algae), 1,710 images of permanent slides (mostly diatoms) and 275 images of herbarium specimens (mostly seaweeds). The total number of specimens is 1,129. Many objects in the University collection remained to be non-digitalised and the original species names were only partially revised.