REVIEWS 349 



The work is of great interest and value both to physiological and clinical 

 students of snake poisons, and is rendered doubly accessible and helpful by the 

 very complete index which the issue of this volume has made possible. 



W. L. SYMES. 



Studies in Fossil Botany: Vol. II. Spermophyta. By D. H. Scott, M.A. 

 Ph.D., F.R.S. [Pp. xiv + 355-676, 85 illustrations.] (London: Adam & 

 Charles Black. 2nd Edition, 1909. Price 51.) 



This volume completes the second edition of the author's well-known Studies, 

 the first half of which appeared last year and was reviewed in Science Progress 

 of July 1908. Our knowledge of the plants with which it is concerned, more 

 especially the Pteridosperms and Bennettiteae, has been so greatly extended 

 during the last decade, that this section, as the author points out, has " required 

 an even more drastic revision than Volume I., and is, to a great extent, a new- 

 book." 



The first two chapters are devoted to the Pteridosperms. They contain a full 

 and thoroughly up-to-date account of the anatomy and fructifications of this 

 interesting group, from the pen of one who, perhaps more than any other, is 

 especially well qualified to deal with these matters. It would indeed be difficult to 

 suggest any improvement in the manner of presentation of the facts and inferences 

 discussed in this section. 



Passing next to another Palaeozoic group, the Cordaitales, the author presents 

 a greatly amplified account of these plants as compared with that found in the 

 first edition. We notice a brief mention and figure of the first British Poroxylon 

 as yet undescribed, in which connection between the stem and leaf-bases can for 

 the first time be demonstrated. 



The author has also placed side by side with the drawings of the ovule and 

 pollen-chamber of Cordaianthus, Griffiths' figures, first published in 1S52, of the 

 same organs of Cycas, which afford a striking resemblance to the fossil seed. 



The last group discussed is the Mesozoic Gymnosperms, especially the 

 Bennettiteae, an excellent summary of Wieland's recent work on American speci- 

 mens being included. This section is however open to serious criticism as 

 regards nomenclature. As is well known to palaeobotanists, a difference of opinion 

 at present exists between European workers and their American brethren, as to 

 whether certain fossils should be called Bennettites or Cycadcoidea. It is not 

 necessary to enter here into the arguments, and it is obvious that Dr. Scott has 

 wished to avoid any expression of opinion as to which name is to be preferred. 

 With this intention, apparently, he uses both names for fossils which admittedly 

 belong to the same genus, his choice being dependent on the particular locality 

 from which a certain specimen was derived. We fancy that this compromise 

 will puzzle the reader and form a serious difficulty to the student, despite the 

 author's footnote on p. 578. Undoubtedly it detracts from the clearness of 

 the account given of this group. Whichever name may be adopted, even pro- 

 visionally, it should be used uniformly throughout. 



The concluding chapter is devoted to a masterly survey of the whole field 

 covered by the two volumes, especially in relation to phylogenetic problems. The 

 author adopts a threefold primary classification — the Sphenopsida, Lycopsida, and 

 Pteropsida — and the review of these groups will prove of the greatest value to 

 botanists, whether their researches lie towards the "living" or the "fossil." As 

 regards this section, it would hardly appear that the author, in discussing the 



