CURRENT LITERATURE. 
BOOK REVIEWS. 
The Desmids. 
AsouT thirty years ago Professor Otto Nordstedt of Lund (Sweden) 
began to study the Desmidiacew. He has written some two dozen con- 
tributions to our knowledge of the group, among which should be men- 
tioned that upon the fresh water alge found by Mr. Berggren in New Zea- 
land and Australia. No one is better fitted than Mr. Nordstedt to undertake 
the laborious task of preparing the fine volume devoted to the bibliography 
of the group* which has been so long the object of his studies. One has but 
to consult the citations of certain authors, such as Archer, Ehrenberg, West 
Wolle, etc., to be surprised at the exactness of reference to small notices 
which can be found with difficulty even in the greatest libraries, and at the 
diligence which must have been necessary to discover them. In the 
midst of such a vast number of citations the occasional omission of small 
notes or announcements of no great importance is not surprising, and detracts 
nothing from the notable merit of the work. Among these omissions are 
noted Agassiz, L., The vegetable character of Xanthidium, Proc. Am. Ass. 
Adv. Sci. —:89-91: 1850; BENNETT, A. W., Movements of desmids, Am. 
Vat. 20: 379-380. 1886; Hastincs, W. N., How to collect desmids, dm. 
Micr. Jour. 13: 113-116. 1892, and The Microscope 12:147. 1892; Hitcu- 
cock, C. H., Swarm spores of Closterium, dm. Micr. Jour. 3:76-77. 1882; 
Perit, P., Preserving conferva and desmids, Jour. Roy. Micr. Soc., Am. 
Micr. Jour. 2:75. 1881, and Am. Jour. Micr.6:137. 1881; TURNER, W 
B., Staining desmids, The Microscope 5: 275. 1885, Process for mounting des- 
mids, Jour. Roy. Micr. Soc., Am. Micr. Jour. 7:58. 1886; almost all of 
which are cited in Miss ES E. Tilden’s “A contribution to the bibli- 
ography of American alge” (Minn. Bot. Studies, 1895). Not only are 
phlets and special notes included, but the larger works of Hassall, Del- : 
ponte, Ralfs, Cooke, Kirchner, Wolle, and the reviewer are constantly cited © 
with Soaps exactness. The index, which the author is justified in call- 
locupletissimus,” deserves high praise, and will certainly be of great 
Service to all’ Gators vs ‘Desmidiace. Dr. i = to be congrat- 
ir letion of th work.— De Tont. 
ulated Epon t the 
. * Noxpstepr, £ ¥. 0.— Index’ -Desmidiacearum citationibus locup 
 Sqne oo [Opus subsidiis et ex aerario ae Suecani et ex “Pecunia 
‘So7)] ee 209 oe 
