Review

In the introduction to his work the author explains the need for Icones of Indian Algae. He mentions several old publications with excellent illustrations in colour of marine algae from other coasts, which have added considerably to the knowledge and wider appreciation of the organisms. ‘Phycologia Indica’, unfortunately, is inferior to most of these older works. This is not because the coloured plates are of inferior quality. Some of them are even perfect, like those of Sebdenia polydactyla (pl. 14), Halymenia porphyroides (pl. 17), Grateloupia indica (pl. 19) and Dictyopteris australis (pl. 34). I am critical on the following: In addition to these plates the author has copied ‘original and authentic illustrations of diagnostic value and anatomical interest’ for his work. I have looked for the original illustrations in literature and have found nearly all of them. This was not so easy, for Mr Srinivasan gives no references to any literature. Comparing these illustrations with the original ones I detected many errors. Nearly all the dimensions as given in the figures are wrong. In some cases they are even ridiculous, as in the case of Liagora erecta (pl. 16) where, according to the given dimensions, cells of more than 10 metres long are found! When comparing the drawings of cells of Gastroclonium iyengarii (pl. 1) with those in the original figure (by Mr Srinivasan himself) the cells seem to have grown to twice their original size.