Abstract
IN this large, volume of about 800 pages only the Phanerozonia of Japan are included. Fifty-nine species are described, of which eighteen are new. The descriptions, in the case of thirty-nine species, are based on an examination, of a number of collections preserved in various Japanese Institutions; but in the case of twenty species, which are not represented in any of the indigenous collections, either the extant description of the original author is quoted, or the species is very honestly expounded in a series of extracts from the several authors, who at different times have discussed and criticised it, in such a way that its definement suffers no perdition. The autoptical descriptions are excellent: they are clear and discriminative, and though rather tending to be meticulous, are far from being tedious or discursive. But in dealing with the history and literature of the subject the author is inclined not only to a redundance of quotation which is largely iterative, but also to burdening the quotations with a superfluity of their unimportant detail. Seeing that there is provided an exhaustive bibliography, filling over 100 pages, and concerned exclusively with papers cited in the text, this multiplication of undigested extracts descriptive of one and the same species is wearisome and unnecessary, though, of course, there are some who would not regard this feature as in any way a defect. On the whole, however, it must be allowed that this monograph is a wonderful piece of solid, honest work, the very card and calendar of taxonomy, and fit to stand among zoological works of reference of the very highest class. The typography is excellent, and there are nineteen double plates of admirable illustrations in photogravure.
A Descriptive Monograph of Japanese Asteroidea, Part I.
(Journal of the College of Science, Imperial University of Tokyo. Vol. xxix., Art. i. December 17th.) Pp. 808 + xix plates. (Tokyo: The University, 1914.)
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
A Descriptive Monograph of Japanese Asteroidea, Part I . Nature 95, 700 (1915). https://doi.org/10.1038/095700a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/095700a0