284 NOTICES OP BOOKS. 



Cambridge Botanical Handbooks : Algae, Vol. I. Myxo- 

 phyceae, Peridinieae, Bacillarieae, CUorophyceae, together 

 with a brief summary of the occurrence and distribution of 

 freshwater Algae. By Prof. G. L. West, M.A., D.Sc, 

 A.R.C.S., F.L.S., viii + 475 pages. 7 x lOJ inches. 271 

 text figures. (Cambridge : at the University Press, 1916. 

 Price 25s. net.) 



The Cambridge Botanical Handbooks have been designed 

 to provide the student who desires to pursue his studies beyond 

 the limits of the general textbook with a series of volumes by 

 specialists on different groups of the vegetable kingdom. The 

 first of the series to appear is the above work dealing with certain 

 groups of the Algae ; other volumes of the series in an advanced 

 state of preparation are on Lichens, by Miss Lorrain Smith, 

 Fungi, by Dr. Helen Gwynne-Vaughan, and the Gnetales, by 

 Professor Pearson. Each volume will review from a broad 

 standpoint the results of recent research, more especially as 

 they affect the actual problems of evolution presented by the 

 various classes of plants with which it deals. 



When Professor West's Treatise on British Freshwater Algae 



was published in the Cambridge Biological Series some twelve 



years ago, the student of this group of plants felt that now 



indeed he had a guide through the labyrinth of conflicting views 



and nomenclature that obscured the subject. And the worker 



who admired the lucidity with which the complex details were 



presented in that volume and its orderly arrangement will not 



be disappointed on turning to this one. Since the publication of 



the " Treatise " very considerable advances have been made in 



our knowledge of many groups of Algae, and it is now proposed 



to replace it by two works of which the volume under review is 



one ; the other now in course of preparation will be a complete 



systematic account with illustrations of the freshwater Algae 



(with the exception of Desmids and Diatoms) which are known 



to occur in the British Islands. The volume now published 



contains a biological account of all the Algae included in 



Myxophyceae, Peridinieae, Bacillarieae, Chlorophyceae, both 



freshwater and marine, and therefore from a biological point of 



view more than covers the Algae dealt with in the earlier work. 



One turns very naturally perhaps to the chapter dealing with 



