
408 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST.  [Vou. XXXVI. 
(pattes) for “legs,” and the frequent confusion between genus and 
family. 
Footnotes recording similar work or opposite conclusions would 
have been valuable, and the lack of an index is especially regret- 
table. SH 
BOTANY. 
The Rhodomelaceæ. — Originally planned as one of the series 
of monographs of the marine organisms of the bay of Naples, 
the author! of this work has extended its scope until now it 
covers the entire family of the Rhodomelaceæ, as represented in 
all waters. Of its large quarto pages rog are given to the gen- 
eral part, covering the anatomical development of the stem, the 
morphology of the vegetative organs, and the reproductive organs ; 
588 pages are given to the special part, with detailed studies of all 
the species found in the Neapolitan region, and of all other species 
authentic specimens of which were accessible to the author; 248 
species are elaborately treated in this part. The third part, “ Sys- 
tematic Results,” 34 pages, includes notes on phylogeny, on the 
relation of the Rhodomelacez to other families, and a synoptical 
view, practically a key to the genera of the Rhodomelacez, giving 
under each genus the names, with descriptions, of the species 
described in the second part, and of such other species as the 
author had reason to consider sufficiently studied to leave no doubt 
of their position under his arrangement. The large genera Laurencia 
and Polysiphonia are excepted from this full treatment, only a por- 
tion of the species being mentioned, about which the many other 
species can be grouped; even with this reduction, 320 species are 
given in this third part. 
A monograph of this character, from the hands of the one person 
competent for the task, is an important event, and the care and 
thoroughness with which it is done are remarkable. The author 
undertook ihe task in 1878, and some of the plates were printed 
in 1885; after all, this long stretch of time seems none too much 
for the enormous amount of work involved. What the future may 

! Falkenberg, R. Flora und Fauna des Golfes von Neapel. 26. Monographie. 
Die Rhodomelaceen. Herausgegeben von t der Zoologischen Station zu Neapel. 
I9OI. xvi + 754 pp., 24 pls. 

