234 Alg<z and their Study. [Sess. 



able subject to members of a Naturalists' Society such as ours 

 — and this statement holds good even at the present time — 

 can be accounted for in several ways. With the exception of 

 the greater part of marine Algse, better known to us generally 

 as " Seaweeds," only very few of the fresh- water inhabitants 

 of this class of Thallophytes can be identified with a simple 

 pocket lens. Even among microscopists, the Algae in general, 

 with the sole exception of the Diatoms, have not been very 

 popular, and I think that this can be easily explained by the 

 lack of suitable literature in our language. Great Britain has 

 produced some very important works on these plants, as for 

 instance Dillwyn's ' British Confervse,' published as early as 

 1809, or Hassall's 'British Fresh- Water Algae' of 1845, and 

 M. C. Cooke's large work upon the same subject published in 

 1882 ; but the true life-histories of most of the fresh- water 

 types have only been made out during the last thirty years, 

 and the works mentioned before are therefore antiquated, and 

 for that reason not of much use to the amateur who wishes to 

 take up this particular study. Only since 1904 are we in 

 the possession of a truly modern and critical work on British 

 fresh- water Algae, written by one of the very few specialists on 

 the subject, namely, Professor Gr. S. West of Birmingham 

 University. However, his book, although giving a very clear 

 account and splendid illustrations of the numerous genera of 

 the fresh-water types, is not a work which will enable us to 

 identify and name correctly the various species. As soon as 

 we are in the possession of a modern flora of the Algae of 

 Great Britain, I am certain that they will receive more atten- 

 tion from the members of Natural History societies in this 

 country. At present we have to rely on systematic works 

 published in German. French, or Latin, and unfortunately even 

 some of these are by no means reliable guides. 



Some exceptions, however, have to be mentioned, as the two 

 large groups of Algae, such as the Brown and Ked seaweeds, 

 have received more attention than the smaller members of 

 this family. For the study of the larger marine Algae we have 

 two excellent works, although published nearly sixty years ago, 

 in Harvey's ' Phycologia Britannica ' and Johnston & Croall's 

 ' The Nature - Printed Seaweeds.' But here also only the 

 larger Algae, which can be recognised and identified with the 



