i I 
for anthophyllite, « — 1 .598-1 .674, 
jl 1 .605-1 .685, y r-r. 1.615—1 .697, 
y~ a — 0.013-0.025; y versus composi- 
tion in chart form; for fayalite, a = 
1.731-1.824, p = 1.760-1.864, y = 
1.773-1.875; «, p, y, y-as and 2V 
versus composition in chart form. Hie 
collection and presentation of a large 
number of charts make this an excel- 
lent textbook for the student of the 
common rock-forming minerals. Charts 
and tables that relate variations in op- 
tical properties to compositional vari- 
ation in a mineral series, such as 
garnets, the rhombohedral carbonates, 
the lazulites, olivines, staurolites, cor- 
dierites, epidotes, pyroxenes, amphi- 
boles, mica minerals, and ' feldspars, 
have been obtained from the detailed 
researches of many scientists (177 ref- 
erences), but the coverage of the vari- 
ous mineral groups is specific in some 
places and general in others. 
Marie Louise Lindberg 
U.S. Geological Survey , 
Washington, D.C. 
Biological Research in Antarctica 
o 
Bio geography and Ecology in Ant- 
arctica (Junk, The Hague, 1965. 800 
pp., $31.95), edited by J. van Mieg- 
hem and P. van Oye, is offered by the 
editors as “. . . a general survey of 
what has been done thus far in the 
way of biogeographical and ecological 
research . . .” in Antarctica. It com- 
prises the third volume in the series 
“Mcnographiae Biologicae” concerned 
with thG continents of the Southern 
Hemisphere, since in the editors’ opin- 
ion, it was “thought essential to in- 
clude Antarctica.” It is one of six ma- 
jor reports on Antarctic biological re- 
search published since the International 
Geophysical Year of 1957 and 1958. 
The others are Discussion on the Bi- 
ology of the Southern Cold Temperate 
Zone (Royal Society, London, 1960); 
The Life Sciences in Antarctica (Na- 
tional Academy of Sciences, Washing- 
ton, D.C., 1961); Proceedings, 1st 
Symposium on Antarctic Biology 
(Hermann, Paris, 1964); Discussion on 
Physical and Biological Changes Across 
die Antarctic Convergence (Royal So- 
ciety, London, 1964); and Antarctica 
(Royal Society of New Zealand, 1965). 
The short preface contains general 
explanations, two of which bear noting. 
One, a statement that little has ap- 
peared in biogeographical and ecologi- 
cal research about Antarctica, is not in 
accord with the existing record of the 
Antarctic biological literature published 
since 1957. Moreover, several con- 
tributors to this volume also had pa- 
pers in earlier publications. Then, al- 
though the editors speak out warmly 
on behalf of international collabora- 
tion, a basic tenet that has done much 
to facilitate research in Antarctica, 
what appears to be lacking for efficient 
coordination in closing the many gaps 
in our knowledge of Antarctic biology 
is international coordination and com- 
munication, preferably through the Sci- 
entific Committee on Antarctic Re- 
search and the appropriate Permanent 
Working Group. The introductory re- 
marks are, in a measure, an unbalanced 
review of the history of the Antarctic 
and an unnecessary digest of the 1 8 
chapters* that constitute the sole basis 
for this volume. 
The first three chapters provide the 
physical setting: Harrington on geology 
and morphology; Rubin cn climatology; 
and Ostapoff on the ocean surround- 
ing Antarctica. The materials fin these 
papers are well organized and clearly 
presented; the data are effective be- 
cause they are derived largely from sig- 
nificant and current findings. 
A second set of papers treats the 
vegetation of Antarctica. Plirano’s re- 
port on freshwater algae is a painstak- 
ing review of all the earlier literature, 
with many detailed tables and an ex- 
tended appendix concerned with the 
taxa of Antarctic and sub- Antarctic 
a 
freshwater algae. The treatment is 
largely systematic, with emphasis on 
geographic distribution; but the useful- 
ness of the latter information rests en- 
tirely on the correctness of the tax- 
onomy, and Hirano admits that some 
of the determinations may be question- 
able. His bibliography, 116 references, 
falls just short of recent ecological 
work by Goldman, Angino, and a num- 
ber of other recent limnological field 
workers; his bibliographic citations lack 
references to pages and sometimes to 
volume. Dodge’s six-page exposition on 
the distribution and origin of the lichen 
vegetation of Antarctica also lacks ref- 
erences. A serious and unexplainable 
gap in the overall presentation of Ant- 
arctic botany is the absence of infor- 
mation on Antarctic mosses and hepat- 
ics: these are extremely important ele- 
ments of the cryptogamcus Antarctic 
flora and visible constituent* of the land 
vegetation and a veritable cosmos of 
terrestrial invertebrate life. These short- 
comings suggest hasty preparation, but 
in view of the long delay between the 
receipt of the manuscripts and their 
final publication, they also indicate a 
lack of editorial coordination. Wace’s 
discussion on the vascular flora is a 
generous 65-page contribution, notwith- 
standing the fact that Antarctica can 
boast of only two flowering plants. The 
author brings in much that is relevant 
in terms of world vegetation by sum- 
marizing the fossil floras, the existing 
and highly pertinent distributions of 
present-day genera of vascular plants 
in the Southern Hemisphere, and re- 
cent views on the theories of -zonal 
distribution of Antarctic and sub- Ant- 
arctic vegetation. Sieburth, who draws 
largely on his own experiences and ob- 
servations, provides a competent and 
knowledgeable review of microbiologi- 
cal research in Antarctica. Wace and 
Sieburth somehow managed to include 
addenda and thus bring their references 
up to 1964. 
Chapters 8 through 12 deal' with the 
marine invertebrates. The first of these, 
David’s paper on Chaetognatha, is a 
concise, informative, and well-dia- 
grammed paper that provides a sys- 
tematic, geographical, and ecological 
treatment. Yaldwirrs paper on decapo 
Crustacea, the second shortest paper 
in the volume, represents a fairly well 
done survey of the surprisingly sparse 
Antarctic decapod Crustacea fauna 
which, it appears, is distinct from the 
sub-Antarctic fauna. However, within 
the brief span of this paper, there 
are a number of editorial variants and 
a series of unnecessary abbreviations 
which are inconsistent with the brevity 
of the paper and the style in the rest 
of the volume. Powell, an acknowledged 
authority of the mollusks of New Zea- 
land and the sub-Antarctic region, has 
contributed a useful and important sum- 
mary of this large group of inverte- 
brates and a number of maps that 
show various distributions. This 47- 
page report includes four and a half 
pages of references up to 1958. It 
omits Rehder’s brief but pertinent 
summary of malacoiogical research in 
The Life Sciences in Antarctica (1961), 
and leaves out references to various 
biogeographical provinces discussed by 
his countrymen. Dell (1962) and Paw- 
son (1961). Vervoort gives a concise 
summary on the biology of epiplank- 
ton in the Antarctic Ocean in relation 
to the hydrology of the Southern 
812 
SCI UNCI', VOL. 151 
