Hans-Jürgen Beug, München: Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil, 2004, 542 pp, EURO 90.00, hardback. ISBN 3-89937-043-0

The publication of this substantial book should be welcomed by palynologists not only in Europe, but also elsewhere. It contains more than 2500 photomicrographs of pollen of species of higher plants in 112 families with distributions in Central and Southern Europe, as well as in Asia Minor and North Africa, organized into 120 plates and 29 drawings. It is the continuation of a project on the pollen flora of Central Europe initiated in 1957 by H.J. Beug as a student of Franz: Firbas. The first part, published in 1961, included gymnosperms and monocots and was heralded as a 'very exhaustive pollen flora from Middle Europe' (Faegri and Iversen, 1964). The present volume includes the 1961 effort plus the dicots. The major impetus for this new book was to enlarge the resources of Eastern European palynologists, whose work was limited to using pollen keys for Northern Europe. Nonetheless, the collection presented in this book builds on the work of others, notably The northwest Europe pollen flora (Punt et al., 1976-2003). The book is dedicated to F Firbas on the l00th anniversary of his birth, and to Faegri and Iversen, whose work in Northern Europe served as the original guide.

The Introduction explains the organization of the pollen keys and provides directions for their use. It also gives information about the pollen collection used, methods for preparation of recent pollen to establish a reference collection, and practical advice for the use of the microscope for pollen studies and photomicrography These are points of interest not only to students, but also to those with long experience.

The terminology used to describe the pollen grains is that of Faegri and Iversen (1964), Iversen and Troels-Smith (1950), and Punt et al. (1976-2003), and is compatible with the terms of Erdtman (1952), who initiated the World Pollen and Spore Flora. A glossary of morphological terms is included; these are characters that, for the most part, can be distinguished by high-resolution light microscopy. Because a classification of pollen grains based on these characters does not always coincide with taxonomic classifications of the sporophyte generation, a set of conventions is discussed that relates the two. Such conventions are important because of the uniformity required by the European Pollen Database. The plant taxonomy used here is based on the Illustrated flora of Central Europe (Hegi, 1981).

The major pollen classes follow Faegri and Iversen (1964) and the book is divided into corresponding numbered sections, although the most common classes are further subdivided on the basis of sculpture. A group intermediate between the Tricolpatae and the Tricolporatae, namely the Tricolporoidatae, is added – a sensible distinction. The book’s table of contents gives these initial subdivisions and the entire classification in a useful form.

At the beginning of each section a key is presented to pollen types or, in complex cases, to groups of types that are treated in separate, subsidiary keys. The terminal branches of the keys are clearly labeled, and each refers to the page where the pollen type is described. That description also includes a list of plant species whose pollen is included in the type. With each species is given the number of collections on which the description is based (usually two or more) and the range and average of size measurements, usually from 50 grains. For some groups in which size is a distinguishing character, comparative tables of measurements are provided, of grains mounted in glycerol jelly. Although a few types (e.g., Pinus and Alnus) have been further diffeerentiated by other palynologists using characteristics not mentioned in this book, the distinctions made here are as fine as present knowledge permits.

All pollen types are illustrated by photographs, commonly showing several views and levels of focus. The photographs have uniform magnification, usually 1000 ×, allowing ready comparison. The references appear in two groups, the first for citations in the main text, the second consisting of more than 500 titles concerned with individual plant families.

Missing from the treatment is the designation of the family affiliation of the species and genera mentioned in the keys, because some pollen types can combine representatives of more than one family. This information could be indicated in an index and would be helpful to palynologists without thorough knowledge of the European flora.

Because with the sketches and photographs and explanatory text the book so effectively extends the well-established keys introduced by Faegri and Iversen to cover areas beyond northern Europe, this should become a standard resource for palynologists of all levels of experience, even those who do not read German. The expert palynologist who needs an exacting key to produce the highest possible pollen-morphological resolution, especially for large or difficult families such as Apiaceae and Caryophyllaceae, will welcome the availability of Beug’s publication to complement the Northwest European Pollen Flora (Punt et al., 1976-2003), another work of especially high standard; two excellent keys are always better than one to resolve the puzzles of identification.

References

Erdtman, G. 1952: Pollen morphology and plant taxonomy I. Stockholm.

Faegri, J. and Iversen, J. 1964: Textbook of pollen analysis, second edition. New York: Hafner (latest edition, 1988, Chichester: Wiley).

Hegi, G. 1981: Illustrierte Flora von Mitteleuropa, third edition (four volumes). Berlin: P. Parey

Iversen, J. and Troels-Smith, J. 1950: Pollenmorphologiske definitioner og typer. Danmarks Geologiske Undersogelse, IV R., Bd. 3, Nr 8, 54 S.

Punt, W. et al., editors 1976-2003: The northwest European pollen flora. Amsterdam: Elsevier.