48 
Professor G. S. West's “ Algce." 
REVIEW.) 
Cambridge Botanical Handbooks (Edited by A. C. Seward and 
A. G. Tansley). Vol. I. Alg<e (Myxophycecz, Peridinece, 
Bacillariece, Chlorophycece), by G. S. West. Cambridge 
University Press, 1916. (Pp. VIII and 475, with 271 figures 
in the text). Price 25s. 
HE decision of the Cambridge University Press to issue a 
series of handbooks, dealing in a comprehensive manner 
with the biology of the different groups of the plant kingdom, will 
have been welcomed by all interested in the progress of botanical 
science. There are sufficient able experts in the United Kingdom 
to make such a series one of considerable value, and one which 
should have a world-wide circulation. The first of these hand¬ 
books to appear is Professor West’s volume on Algae, and we have 
nothing but praise for the style of production. It is, however, 
extremely unfortunate that the cost of the volume—and presumably 
of those which are to follow—is so high as to preclude a really 
extensive sale. Even at the sacrifice of some of the munificence 
in production, a considerably lower price should have been possible, 
ensuring, as it undoubtedly would, a much wider circulation. 
Professor West approaches his subject with an authority 
based on many years’ experience, and no one probably is so well 
suited as he to write on the difficult group of the Algae. The 
present volume only deals with part of the group, the remaining 
subdivisions forming the subject-matter of a second volume. Every 
algologist is cognisant of the great difficulties that lie in the way of 
a collective treatment of this varied and in part imperfectly known 
group, and one may cordially congratulate Professor West on 
having, on the whole, encompassed the task successfully. The 
scope is wide, the presentation lucid, and the numerous illustra¬ 
tions (of which more than one-half are by the author himself) 
excellent and well chosen. The most serious criticism to be made 
is that there is frequently too much detail of a systematic nature 
and often a lack of sufficiently wide morphological treatment. 
The volume will form a first-class introduction to taxonomic work, 
but the comparative morphologist will occasionally find himself 
somewhat disappointed. It is to be regretted that Professor West 
decided against an inclusion of Flagellata in these volumes. Recent 
work has brought to light so marked a degree of parallelism 
between certain series of Algae and the different subdivisions of 
the Flagellata, that an account of the latter is almost necessary to 
display clearly the general trend of Protistan evolution in the 
direction of the plant kingdom. We think that justice could have 
been done to the essential features of Flagellate morphology with¬ 
out very unduly enlarging the size of the work. 
The volume opens with an admirable account of the Myxo- 
phyceae (Cyanophycese), really the first modern description of the 
group ; a particularly good section is that dealing with the distribu¬ 
tion and habit of these Algae (pp. 30-38). With the author’s 
conclusions as to the nature of heterocysts (p. 20) and the position 
of the group as a whole (p. 39) we are in complete agreement. 
