Notes on Diatoms: an Introduction to the Study of the Diatomaceæ

Abstract

WHATEVER opinion may be held as to the general usefulness of such a book as the above, one pays homage to the industry and patience that went to its compilation. From Leeuwenhoek to De Toni, from 1703 to 1929, the author has ranged, collecting a mass of information that one piously hopes may be useful to the student of the group. Whether it assists in clearing up what Grunow described as “le chaos qui regne actuellement dans certains genres” is doubtful, and as an “Introduction to the Study of the Diatomaceæ” (which, by the way, is the title of Mills and Deby's book of 1893), it is much less useful than such a book as Hustedt's “Süsswasser-Diatomeen Deutschlands”. Accompanying the book in a pocket at the end are five plates of illustrations of species, four being from outline drawings and one from photomicrographs; this last being by far the best of the plates.

Notes on Diatoms: an Introduction to the Study of the Diatomaceæ.

Compiled by Frederick Beatson Taylor. Pp. ii + 269. (Bournemouth: The Compiler, 2a Montague Road, 1929.) 21s.