RECENT ADVANCES IN SCIENCE 235 



(Mem. Queensl. Mus. vol. v. pp. 231-2, pi. XXIV.) represented 

 by a foliage impression previously described as a Pterophyllum. 

 Bassler (Amer. Journ. Sci. vol. xlii. pp. 21-6) claimed to have 

 identified a " Cycadophyte," the Plagiozamites of Zeiller, in an 

 American deposit, which makes it " the earliest occurrence 

 thus far recorded of the plant group." His identification seems 

 entirely unjustified, however, and, judging from the text figure 

 given, his plant is simply a Rhacopteris. The arguments and 

 conclusions in the paper are therefore invalidated, and will 

 tend to confuse rather than elucidate the science of Paleo- 

 botany. 



Pteridosperms. — This group, about which so much has 

 been recently written, has been neglected this year. Kubart 

 is reported to have published a consideration of Anachoropteris 

 pulchra Corda (Anz. Akad. Wiss. Wien, vol. liii.), but I have 

 not been able to see the paper. 



Pteridophyta. — A specimen of Annularia, remarkably 

 similar to the well-known European A. stellata, was described 

 from a block with specimens of Glossopteris (Walkom, Mem. 

 Queensl. Mus. No. 5, pp. 233-4, pi. XXV.). This association 

 is of particular interest in this locality ; the only Annularia 

 previously recorded from the Permo-Carboniferous rocks of 

 E. Australia is Feistmantel's species from the Greta Coal 

 Measures. 



The Charace^, so long dependent on scattered and desul- 

 tory observation, were taken seriously in hand by Reid and 

 Groves, who have read several papers on the subject. By 

 careful, slow etching of the matrices with acid, as well as 

 from sections, good results have been obtained. Beautiful 

 photographs of hitherto obscure details offered a promise of 

 much to come in the future about this puzzling and geologically 

 persistent family. (See Preliminary Report on the Purbeck 

 Characeae, Proceed. Roy.Soc. Lond. B, vol. Ixxxix. pp. 251-6, 

 pi. VIII.) 



AlGuE. — Davis, in a short paper without illustrations, 

 recorded the discovery of large numbers of Eocene algae in a 

 petroleum-yielding shale in Colorado (Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 

 vol. ii. pp. 1 14-19). Blue-green algae, chlorophyceae, and 

 others were stated to be present in greatnumbers, and to be 

 represented by still living genera such as Spirulina, Pediastrum, 

 and others. 



