[Book Reviews]

Abstract

“THE Young Collector” series, to which this hand-book belongs, deals generally with classes of objects which can be permanently preserved. The present volume describes plants which, as the author says, “are not well adapted for preservation.” His task, therefore, has been to give an account of the structure and habits of these plants, and to explain how they may be procured in the best form for observation. He begins with information about the apparatus required, then treats of the Algæ as a class, and the main divisions into which they have been separated by botanists, and in most of the remaining part of the book describes species, “choosing as types of each genus such species as are most likely to be met with, and leaving out those which are either rare or possess few points of interest for the beginner.” Mr. Smithson himself points out that the volume leaves much to be sought elsewhere; but, if used intelligently, it will do sound work by preparing the way for wider study.

Pond Life: Algæ and Allied Forms.

By T. Spencer Smithson. (London: Swan Sonnenschein and Co., 1890.)