1896.] Recent Literature. 291 



fragmentary, but the figures in the test an 

 having been taken from the recent works 

 and the author. 



Five sub-classes are recognized, i. e., Phmtphymr, Chlor<>i>hycnc 

 Di<iToii>>if-r,f, RhoilujJiiir, it and Cynitophtu-nT. The general arrange- 

 ment of the book is poor ; the more complex groups are treated of first 

 and the simpler last, except in tie > the reverse 



order is followed. The Rhodophycece moreover " present so many dif- 

 ficulties to be understood only after the study of other groups that the 

 author has chosen the Phceophycece with its familiar forms of sea- 

 wracks and tangles for the first sub-class. The Chforopkyeem and 

 Diatomaeece follow naturally. The Rhodophycece next make a series 

 by themselves, and finally, come the simple Cyanophycra;. In the 

 I'lurnp/nime seventeen orders are recognized which are the same as 

 those of Kiellman in Engler and Prantl's Pflaitzenfamilien with a few 

 exceptions. S}»:riii<itni-h,ni.-< is placed in the Sj lt ,rurfii"ir, n and .1 lyrin- 

 irifhin in the EIn<-Iii*t<i<-><i instead of each standing in an order by it- 

 self; the Dictyotece are placed between the Cuth >•< •«-, < r and Tl'nphr!- 

 daeece instead of being left out altogether ; the Ralfsiacece are placed 

 near the SphacelariaceCB instead of near the Laminarhicece as they 

 have been by Kiellman and other-. Splaehnidiwn, a monotypic 



included among the Fucacecc, is placed in an order by itself— the 

 Splaehnidiaeea. It has been found that the conceptacles of Splach- 

 itid'mm contain sporangia similar to those of the Lunimiriwece instead 

 of oospores and antheridia, hence it is placed near that order. The 

 marine Chlorophyeece are treated under eleven orders ; many recent 

 facts as to their reproduction being incorporated. At the end of two 

 groups, the Pereclineie and the Coccospheres and Rhabdospheres are 

 briefly mentioned as being on the borderland between the vegetable 

 and animal kingdom. In the twenty pages devoted to the D\«iun,ae, <e, 

 the structure, reproduction, geographical and geological distribution 

 are quite fully discussed, but nothing is said of the arrangement of the 

 groups and very little of its systematic position. We can agree with 

 the author that the diatoms should not be placed in the PI 

 solely because they have a coloring matter closely related to that of the 

 brown sea-weeds, but we can hardly agree that a siliceous covering and 

 the presence of diatomine are sufficient to separate so widely two groups 

 otherwise so closely related as the diatoms and desmids. 



According to the preface " the account of the Rhodophycece h based 

 on the scattered papers of Schmit 



