The collector's handy-book of algae : desmids, fungi, lichens, mosses, &c / with instructions for their preparation and for the formation of an herbarium by Johann Nave ; translated and edited by W.W. Spicer.

  • Nave, Johann, 1831-1864.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The collector's handy-book of algae : desmids, fungi, lichens, mosses, &c / with instructions for their preparation and for the formation of an herbarium by Johann Nave ; translated and edited by W.W. Spicer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the plants, and turns them yellow or brown; but even that is to be preferred to losing them altogether. At the same time the collector should not forget to note the fact of their having been immersed in alcohol, otherwise, if exchanges are made, strange mistakes may arise as to the original colour of the specimen. As may be supposed, plants which have grown in swiftly flowing streams are more liable to decay after they have been gathered, than those whose home is the stagnant pond or marsh, since the conditions of life in the latter are not so much interfered with by their removal; indeed, they will often continue to live and vegetate in a room, provided attention be paid to the chemical quality of the water in which they are found. As this little work is intended for the collector and not for the systematist, nothing will here be said with regard to the genera into which the Algte have been divided. That portion of their history must be sought for in other works, though of course in this, as in every other depart- ment of Natural History, an intimate knowledge of both genera and species is essential to the student. But, for convenience sake and to avoid repetitions, we will, in the following pages, confine our treatment of the subject to certain heads, corresponding in some degree to the natural divisions of systematic authors. [Having given on a preceding page one or two examples of the lovely patterns which distinguish some of the fila- mentous Algffi, it will not be amiss to insert here some specimens of the families of Diatomacefe and Desmidiacea?. The figures will assist the young student in discriminating the members of these minute, but important, divisions of the vegetable kingdom ; they will also help to point out to him what wonderful treasures lie within his grasp, ready to be seized as soon as his eye and hand are sufficiently educated to make them his own. In the accompanying Plates (il. III. IV. V.) the Diatomacete are represented by figures 9 to 14, the Desmidiaceas by figs. 15 to 23.—Ed.]