Bibliographical Notices. 1 35 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



The British Desmidiea. By John Ralfs, M.R.C.S. Pp. xxii. &226. 

 Tab. 35. 8vo. Reeve, Benham and Reeve, 1848. 



TiiE foundation of this admirable w^ork was laid in a series of papers 

 read before the Botanical Society of Edinburgh and published from 

 time to time in this Journal. The figures and a great portion of the 

 descriptive matter v^^ere most unfairly appropriated by the author of a 

 treatise on the ' British Freshwater Algae,' who seemed to think that 

 as he was engaged on the subject, no one else had a right to inter- 

 fere with it, and that every one in possession of information, the 

 fruit of his own industry and observation, was obliged to forego the 

 publication of such materials in a separate form and at once give up 

 the possession of it to him. The matter was treated by us at the 

 time with far more lenity than it deserved, and the almost universal 

 sense of the propriety of our criticism has fully justified the appro- 

 bation with which those most competent to judge of the subject re- 

 ceived our comments. We should indeed have grieved had the treat- 

 ment which he met with discouraged Mr. Ralfs in his well-directed 

 labour and prevented his undertaking the task which he has now 

 brought, after almost infinite pains, and we fear with little remune- 

 ration, to such a brilliant consummation. 



No country has contributed more perhaps to the knowledge of 

 Algae than our own. Commencing with the magnificent works of 

 Turner and of Dillwyn, we have by the labours of Borrer, Hooker, 

 Griffiths and other excellent observers recorded in English Botany, 

 and in more recent times of Greville, Harvey, Berkeley, Hassall, Ralfs 

 and Thwaites, a succession of observations illustrating in turn every 

 group of this great and important natural order. Even before the 

 improvement of our microscopes, which has thrown so much light on 

 every branch of natural history, there were keen observers amongst 

 us who anticipated some of the most curious modern discoveries. 

 Captain Carmichael for instance at Appin, at a distance from all 

 sources of information, without a single neighbour sympathizing in 

 his pursuits, and with a microscope of very imperfect construction, 

 ascertained the real structure of the fructification of Fuci as appears 

 from the manuscript now before the writer of these remarks ; but 

 unfortunately the publication of this and others of his discoveries 

 was prevented by the derangement to which the book trade was sub- 

 ject a year or two before his death, which took place in 1827. 



During the early part of this period indeed it was ])rincipally facts 

 and forms which were recorded, affording a storehouse for others 

 out of which to generalize, and most unhappily for the progress of 

 Algology those who used them did so either in ignorance or neglect 

 of each other's labours. Thus the elder Agardh's system, which was 

 for along time implicitly received, was formed without due reference 

 to the numerous treatises of the French algologists. In later times 

 indeed Greville acquired very correct general views of the affinities 



