History of Phycology - 20th Century

20th Century

In 1895 Børgesen started his study of the Faeroe Islands and published his work in 1902. Later between 1920 and 1936 he published his research on the algae of the Canary Islands.

In 1935 and 1945 Felix Eugen Fritsch (1879–1954) published in two volumes his treatise: The Structure and Reproduction of the Algae. These two volumes detail virtually all that was then known about the morphology and reproduction of the algae. However knowledge of algae has so greatly increased since then it would be impossible for these to be brought up-to-date. Nevertheless reference is often made to them. Other valuable works published in the 1950s include Cryptogamic Botany. written by Gilbert Morgan Smith (1885–1959), the algal volume (no.1) was published in 1955. In the following year (1956), Die Gattungen der Rhodophyceen. by Johan Harald Kylin (1879–1949) was published posthumously. Other phycologists who contributed massively to the knowledge of algae include: Elmer Yale Dawson (1918–1966) who published over 60 papers on the algae of the North American Pacific seas (Papenfuss, 1976).