41 8 NATURAL SCIENCE. June. 



include leaves, scales, seeds, flowers, and stems, and are described in 

 the order indicated. From the list at the end of the volume the 

 Wealden flora is seen to contam about forty " species" and varieties, 

 more than half of which are gymnosperms, while two are alga-like 

 organisms, and one each is assigned to Charophyta and Bryophyta. 

 Finally, the author says, " Looking at the Wealden plants col- 

 lectivel}^ we notice a very striking agreement with the flora of 

 the underlying Jurassic strata, and it would be difficult to point 

 to any well-marked or essential difference between the plant- 

 life of the two periods. The evidence of palaeobotany certainly 

 favours the inclusion of the Wealden rocks in the Jurassic series." 

 He adds a few words of regret that no light is thrown on the evolution 

 of angiosperms, and suggests that the Wealden vegetation would 

 seem to have been without any examples of the highest class of 

 plants, and may be looked upon as the last of the Mesozoic floras in 

 which the gymnosperms represented the limit of plant development. 

 The inflorescence of Bennettites is the only indication of " a distinct 

 advance in the differentiation of reproductive structures beyond the 

 characteristic cycadean type." 



The " list of works quoted " forms a useful bibliography ; and a 

 comprehensive and, so far as we have tested, accurate index concludes 

 the text. 



Education in Botany, 



Elements of Botany. By J. Y. Bergen, A.M. Svo. Pp. 275 and 57. Boston, 

 U.S.A., and London : Ginn & Co. 1896. 



This little book, which has grown out of a teacher's notes, is one of 

 the right sort. The boys and girls for whom it is intended are made 

 to acquire their knowledge by experiment and observation. They 

 sow seeds, watch them growing, and study the conditions of growth. 

 They examine buds and record what they see. They are told some- 

 thing of the wonderful relations which subsist between flowers and 

 insects, and then encouraged to investigate some of the adaptations 

 by which the plant benefits from a welcome visit or protects itself 

 against an unwelcome one. Their powers of thought and observa- 

 tion are stimulated by suggestive questions — What is the use of this ? 

 or the reason of that ? Why is the pulp of so many fruits eatable ? 

 Why are the seeds of many pulpy fruits bitter or otherwise 

 unpleasantly flavoured ? Why are the seeds or the layers surround- 

 ing the seed too hard to be chewed ? A course like the one followed 

 in this book will ensure not only a fair knowledge of the elements of 

 botany, but what is of more importance, the best kind of education. 

 So much for part i., comprising with its four appendices and index 

 275 pages. Part ii. is merely a small flora, including the commoner 

 spring flowers of the middle and northern States, and adds little, if 

 anything, to the general usefulness of the book. 



New Serials. 



To the many new serials hailing from Russia and recently noticed by 

 us must be added Annuaire Geologiqne et Mineialogiqjte de la Riissie 

 (Ezheghodnik po Gheologhil i Mineraloghii Rossii), edited by 

 N. Krichtafovitch, and printed at Warsaw, but published at Novo- 

 Alexandria, gouvernement de Lublin, Institut agronomique et forestier 

 (price los. per annum). Vol. i., livr. i, for 1896, is before us ; it 

 is a 4to, printed in Russian and French (or German) in parallel 

 columns. The contents are arranged in six sections, each with 

 independent pagination, as follows : Memoirs and original Notes,. 



