RECENT ADVANCES IN SCIENCE 229 



(" Uber die Starkebildung im Spektrum," Ber. d. dcutsch. hot. 

 Ges. 35, 44-69, 191 7) the question of the relative assimilation 

 in various parts of the spectrum is dealt with, as far as the 

 assimilatory activity is expressed by the formation of starch. 

 The experiments of Timiriazeff, Engelmann, Bonnier and 

 Mangin and others are severely criticised, and it is found 

 that any wave-length between 760 fifi and 330 /xyu, is capable of 

 inducing starch formation. 



PALEOBOTANY IN 1916. By Marie C. Stopes, D.Sc, Ph.D., 

 University College, London. 



The influence of the war on the output of palseobotanical work 

 was very apparent this year, and the difference between 191 6 

 and 191 5 is much more marked than that between 191 5 and 19 14. 

 In the general account published in Science Progress last 

 year of the 191 5 harvest of paleobotany it was pointed out 

 how surprising (in spite of the war) were the quantity, quality, 

 and handsomeness of production ; the same cannot be said 

 for 1 91 6. There are only two large memoirs to record, both 

 hailing from America. An important paper, forty-six pages 

 long, on the Devonian of Norway, though of great interest and 

 value, would not in an ordinary year have been physically 

 noticeable on a table on which was spread the European output 

 for the year ; but that this year it is so is an indication of the 

 slenderness of the year's publications. 



Nevertheless there are some notable additions to the science, 

 and these will be dealt with under the same arrangement of 

 subjects as was used last year. In addition to the papers 

 mentioned, I have the titles of about thirty others of less 

 moment, or which have not yet reached me though this article 

 was delayed in the hope of their arrival. 



General Palceobotany . — The lamented death of the great 

 Prof. Zeiller called forth from Dr. Scott an obituary, published 

 in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, in which a useful 

 record of his work was given. M. H. Douville also did honour 

 to the master (Bull. Mens. Assoc. £cole sup. Mines, pp. 18-25). 

 The deaths of Zeiller and the other leading palaeobotanists noted 

 last year have influenced the output of work in the same sense 

 as has the war. 



Antevs published a general discussion of the climate of the 



