ESSAY-REVIEWS 675 



one who must some day arise to deal with the whole question of fossil 

 dicotyledons. 



Our author leaves this theme alone, for he modestly considers himself 

 inadequately equipped to attack it ; but we feel that such a work from his 

 pen, even if not ideal, would be of great use, and that he is indeed sufficiently 

 equipped for this task, although he may not feel an interest acute enough 

 to drive him to undertake such a toilsome labour of love. 



The present volume appeals pre-eminently to pala^obotanists and 

 botanists, but geologists should be glad to turn to it for records of genera 

 with which they must from time to time deal in various geological horizons. 

 To anyone engaged upon research in any of the three above-named sciences 

 the possession of this text-book is essential. 



The specialist might be tempted in every chapter to discuss, and perhaps 

 to criticise, the detailed arrangement, the nomenclature, or the proportionate 

 space allotted to each genus. Detailed criticism, however, is out of place 

 in the present review, the main theme of which must be congratulation to 

 the author on the accomplishment of his very laborious and exhausting 

 work, and thanks to him for the service which he has rendered to the science. 



Although a textbook, one finds in its pages quite a number of species 

 and genera described or named for the first time. Some of these, of com- 

 paratively minor importance, are adequately dealt with in the few lines 

 allotted to them. Sometimes the fact that they are new species has tempted 

 the author to give them space a little out of proportion to their importance. 

 Among the new generic names several are created for the renaming of 

 already described and known genera, such for instance as Mesembrioxylon. 



With Prof. Seward, we think that it is well to drop Gothan's two-genera 

 Podocarpoxylon and Phyllocladoxylon, but one doubts whether the newly 

 instituted Mesembrioxylon will " catch on." It carries with it the haunting 

 suggestion of quite another affinity, and, as our author points out, the 

 anatomical characters of the plants it covers are particularly difficult to 

 handle. 



Until Palseobotanical science, however, is very much more advanced 

 than it is at present, the terminology must depend on the view-point of the 

 individual workers who describe and deal with details so minute as to be 

 in general overlooked by the recent botanist, who has the much easier task 

 of classifying complete material. 



Professor Seward is on the whole sane, and not too much of a purist 

 as regards nomenclature, although in one or two places he tends to use 

 terminology in a way which one hopes will not receive universal acceptance. 

 For instance, his rechristening of various fossil woods and his eliminating 

 the useful name Araucarioxylon would seem to impoverish terminology. 



Almost every important fossil plant in the families covered by this volume 

 finds a place in it. One exception to this, however, is noted in the absence 

 of the beautiful Japanese species from that interesting genus Prepinus, of 

 which only two other species are known. 



Owing to the unsatisfactory nature, and the comparative rarity of good 

 impressions of the foliage, a very large proportion of the fossil members of 

 the Gymnosperms are represented by petrified anatomical specimens, in 

 particular of their woods. A large section, therefore, of this book deals 

 with the subtle details of Gymnospermic wood anatomy, and discusses 

 usefully the structural points on which specific determinations can be made. 

 The writer says very truly : " No branch of palaeobotanical research makes 

 greater demands upon the patience and self-control of the student," and 

 yet, as Prof. Seward goes on later to say, " The main point is that the 

 student cannot afford to neglect this line of enquiry if he desires to obtain 

 a comprehensive view of the changing combinations of structural features 

 preceding their distribution among existing genera." 





