H.-J. Beug, Leitfaden der Pollenbestimmung fur Mitteleuropa und angrenzende Gebiete, Verlag Friedrich Pfeil, München, Germany, 2004, ISBN: 3-89937-043-0, 542 pages, 120 plates, 12 tables, bound with hard cover, Euro 90.00

This new manual on the identification of fossil pollen grains of plants from the West European and Middle European floras offers a wealth of information. Hans-Jurgen Beug shows in this handbook his thorough knowledge of pollen morphology. The keys presented give access to 568 different pollen types.

It is not easy to make a well-balanced comparison with the series of books on the Northwest European Pollen Flora as so many differences can be observed. Most characteristic is that the present pollen flora is concise and limited to one book, covers a larger part of the European territory, shows photographs with less magnification and is limited to light microscopy. This strategy certainly has advantages. The present book is a very useful manual that will be welcomed by a broad audience of palynologists.

Some four decades ago Beug had started his systematic studies of the European pollen flora and he had scheduled to publish the results in a series of publications. The first appeared in 1962 under the title 'Leitfaden der Pollenbestimmung. I' (Beug, 1962). Further volumes were never finished as Beug had to give a significant part of his time to serve the central board of the University of Göttingen. Finishing this monumental work became possible after retirement from the position of director of the 'Institute for Palynology and Quaternary Sciences' at the University of Göttingen.

Compiling a pollen morphological study of a complete floral region is a huge task. The 'World list of Quaternary pollen and spore atlases' (Hooghiemstra and van Geel, 1998) shows that many floral regions have unfinished series of pollen morphological studies. Often, such work goes beyond the lifetime of a single scientist. We know professor Beug as a thorough worker in relative silence, with much bottled-up drive and endurance. During the last few years he fully dedicated his energy to the completion of this study.

This manual is published in German, a language which is loosing ground among the younger generation. Fortunately, pollen morphological terminology can easily be understood and the 120 plates offer a large number of high quality photographs. Therefore, palynologists who do not speak German barely have a reason of not using this book.

The book starts with an extensive 'contents' of the 36 chapters (pages 7 to 20). The user is offered a first opportunity to learn to which degree genera can be identified. In a 'preface' the development of this study is put into a historical perspective, which gives the reader an interesting view on the development of this part of paleoecology. In the 'introduction' chapter (pages 23 to 41) the user is offered instructions with great care. The widely accepted terminology of Faegri and Iversen has been followed. Each pollen class receives special attention in the next 30 chapters of this book (pages 41 to 506). In each of these pollen classes a 'key to the genera' offers much help by giving references to plate numbers and mentioning the page numbers where morphological decriptions can be found. Specialised 'keys to lower ranked identifications' (species, pollen types) lead the user to the final identification of the pollen grain. Pollen types that are difficult to identify receive additional attention. Possible deviations with results published in earlier pollen identification manuals are discussed and evaluated. All pollenmorphological groups are excellently illustrated with high quality light microscope photographs, arranged over 120 full-page sized plates. The book is completed with a list of general literature (chapter 34), lists of literature specified for each family (chapter 35), and a general register (chapter 36).

The thorough elaboration of the pollen identification keys, the high quality of the plates, and the large number of illustrated pollen taxa makes using this book to a pleasure. Also, the publisher should receive a compliment for the high quality of book binding. Thanks to external financial support the price of this book is reasonable. Professional palynologists, but also PhD students, might find it attractive to buy a private copy. The book should be present in every office where pollen analysis on sediments of European origin is carried out. The book has also much to offer to palynologists working in other areas of the world where taxa of the European flora do occur. The palynological community should be grateful Professor Beug was able to finish this monumental work. I warmly recommend this new pollen identification manual which will keep its relevance in palynological research for several decades.