PREFACE 



The algae are, on the whole, unobtrusive organisms, 

 and although their beauty of form and variety of life 

 history have not failed to attract the attention of the 

 morphologist, the student of metabolism has generally 

 preferred to work with material more readily available 

 or showing more obvious chemical activity. How- 

 ever, there is a growing recognition that algal meta- 

 bolism has its own distinctive features and that its 

 study has both academic and economic value. In this 

 book I have attempted to bring together information 

 scattered through a variety of scientific publications 

 into a general account of the subject which will be 

 of interest to students of botany, microbiology and 

 biochemistry. 



My thanks are due in particular to Professors F. E. 

 Fritsch, F.R.S., and W. H. Pearsall, F.R.S. There is 

 much in this book derived from their teaching for 

 which acknowledgement cannot be made by citation 

 of published works and without their encouragement 

 and help I could not have persisted in this field of 

 study. I am also grateful to my colleague P. J. Syrett 

 for his helpful criticism of the manuscript; such errors 

 as still occur must be attributed to lack of thoroughness 

 on my part, not his. Finally I must record my thanks 

 to those persons, named in the list of references, who 

 have allowed me to quote their unpublished results. 



G. E. F. 



UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON 



August 1952 



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