480 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [MAY 
interesting are detailed stem and root studies of individual species illustrated 
y 50 drawings, while the further ecological anatomy of the pine barren plants 
is considered in two chapters devoted respectively to leaf forms and leaf 
structure. The latter is illustrated by over 50 drawings of cross-sections 
studied microscopically. 
These notes all go to show that the volume is full of innumerable data 
regarding the plant life of the region under consideration, making it one of the 
most comprehensive and complete ecological studies yet undertaken. These 
details are well organized and splendidly illustrated by numerous drawings, 
photographs, and maps. It forms an invaluable record of a more than usually 
interesting region, while the publishers have cooperated with the author in 
presenting it in an attractive volume.—Geo. D. FULLER 
Algae 
West’s British freshwater algae, which was published in 1904, supplied a 
long felt want. Its convenient taxonomic keys, together with notes on habi- 
tats, life histories, and biological conditions, all written with the authority 
which comes only from first hand knowledge of the subject, made the book so 
indispensable that the edition was soon exhausted. After delays, occasioned 
partly by the author’s illness and partly by the great war, the first volume? of a 
more extensive work has made its appearance. This volume is also the first 
of a still more extensive series which will appear under the general title of 
Cambridge Botanical Handbooks, now being edited by Professors SEwARD and 
TANSLEY. A volume on lichens by Miss LorraIN SMITH, one on fungi by 
Dr. HELEN GWYNNE-VAUGHAN, and one on Gnetales by the late Professor 
PEARSON, are in an advanced stage of preparation 
The present volume on algae deals with the My iophiycent lip 
Peridineae, Bacillariaceae, and Chlorophyceae, both fresh water and mari 
ppea in succession, usually beginning with a diagnosis, followed by 
descriptions of habitats, bisloical conditions, structures, and life histories, 
and ending with a discussion of affinities. Each of the larger divisions closes 
with a list of the literature cited. : 
We are glad to see the Cyanophyceae included as the lowest of the algae. 
It will be remembered that Otrmanns excluded this group from his book on the 
morphology and biology of algae. West does not agree with HEGNER, OLIVE, 
GARDNER, Kou, PHILLIPS, and others who regard the central body as a nucleus. 
To us his arguments against the nuclear theory do not seem convincing, 
especially since the Cyanophyceae are so low in the scale of living organisms. 
2 West, G. S. seat Vol. L. 8vo. pp. viii+475. figs. 271. Cambridge University 
Press. 1916. 255 
