HISTORICAL BEYIEW OF THE PHJ20PHTCEJJ 271 



The first half of the Nineteenth Century (1800-1850) may be 

 termed the golden age of the collector and systematist. Enthusiastic 

 amateurs who specialized^ in alga-collecting were numerous, and the 

 cult of the Herbarium was accumulating the material utilized by 

 systematists, and building the framework of the science. Nowaday*s 

 one can hardly spare the time and labour for such practices, with a 

 quiet conscience, since ideals of what is most worthy to be done have 

 been considerably raised, and the horizon broadened ; but at that 

 time such efforts were still the expression of the highest outlook 

 of the science — at any rate, in this country. The names of many who 

 helped to erect this monumental work are enshrined in generic or 

 specific names : — e.g. Kalfs of Penzance (1807-90 : Ralfsia), Clous- 

 ton of Orkney (1800-84 : Laminaria Gloustoni), Landsborough of 

 the Sea-Oak fame (1779-1854 : Land slur (jia). Miss Cutler of Sid- 

 mouth (tl866: Gutleria), Miss Gifford of Minehead (1823 ?-91: 

 Glffordia) : others are commemorated in genera of Florideae, as 

 Mrs. Griffiths of Torquay (1768-1858 : Griffithsia, the accepted 

 doyenne of British lady algologists), Mrs. Gatty (1809-73 : Gattya), 

 Mrs. Gulson (fl. 1855 : Gulsonia), Miss Ball (tl872 : Ballia), 

 Miss Hutchins of Bantry (1785-1815: Hutchinsia, now sunk in 

 Polysiphonia), and PoUexsen of Orkney (1813-99; Pollexfenia). 

 It is also interesting to include Mrs. Wyatt of Torquay (fl. 1833 : 

 Wyattia), who with the assistance of Mrs. Griffiths compiled the AlgcB 

 Damnoniensis (4 vols, exsiccata, 234 specimens) to which Harvey's 

 Manual (1841) was largely indebted i. This algological branch 

 of Botan}'- has been now seen, as it were, to grow up : passing through 

 the stage of 'general information,' characteristic of the more or less 

 educated classes of Greek, Renaissance, or modern times, to the 

 Nature- Study phase of the school-boy and the age of Dillenius, on to 

 the adult naturalist and collector, with refined methods for collecting, 

 naming, and determining species and varieties, but not seeming 

 capable of getting much further. The genemtion which produced the 

 Phycologia Britannica and allied works ^ left few successors ; and 

 this work so far again marks the close of an epoch. Henceforward 

 the study of Algse requires a more special botanical training than Avas 

 possible for the collector and amateur, though the function of these 

 is still by no means exhausted, and there is room for many at the 

 present day. 



A more complete system was drawn up by the younger Agaedh 

 (1848), inclusive of all known algae 3; the Phseophycese alone extend 

 to 7 families and a total of 70 genera, arranged in series from Ecto- 

 carpus to Sargasstim ; and this arrangement constitutes the basis 

 of modern classifications, to be emended with improved outlook, as 

 expressed by further knowledge of reproductive processes and life- 

 histories. 



Meanwhile, another phase of the subject was beginning to make 



1 Greville (1830), loc. cit. p. vi; Harvey; Phyc. Brit. (1851), Preface, p, iv. 



2 Cf. Phycologia australica Harvey (1858); Nereis Bor. J.mer. Harvey (1851). 

 Makers of British Botany, Oliver (1913) : ' Harvey,' p. 204. 



"* J. G. Agardh (Lund, 1848). Species Genera et Ordines Fucoidenrum, 



