REVIEWS 523 



Prof. Seward has followed the scheme of the earlier volumes, appealing both to 

 botanists and geologists. Botanists are perhaps more considered in this volume 

 than geologists, because, of the plants included, there is such a wealth of 

 material revealing their inner tissue structure (in what is commonly known 

 to pakeobotanists as "petrified material"), that elaborate morphological and 

 systematic consideration of them is temptingly suggested. The geologists, 

 however, might have been a little more catered for. It would have taken but 

 little extra space to tabulate the geological distribution of the leading genera 

 considered, a point which is not only of value to a student anxious to retain clear 

 impressions of the subject, but is often unexpectedly clarifying to morphologically 

 conceived views of the evolutionary sequence. 



Detailed criticism of such a work as this is impossible in a short review : 

 throughout a judicial attitude is maintained by the author, and facts are gleaned 

 from all sources and stated as impartially as may be. One is glad to see that 

 insular prejudice has broken down, and Potonie's rightful use of the generic name 

 Lyginoptcris, even though it is after his death, is at last allowed to replace the 

 long invalidated Lyginodendrori for the leading type of the Pteridosperms. 



With so much excellence there is naturally something left to be desired, 

 particularly in the diagnoses of species. It would have added to the author's 

 labour, but it would have greatly enhanced the clarity and value of the book, to 

 have given short, concise, and accurate diagnoses of all the species described. 

 While most of the illustrations are good, a number are less good than figures 

 already published in memoirs — eg. Fig. 404 E is a particularly poor illustration of 

 an important feature admirably illustrated by others, and is doubly disappointing 

 as it comes so close to the excellent Fig. 403. Fig. 537 is not alone in being an 

 entirely inadequate representation of its subject. 



These, however, are spots on the sun : and for the immense labour involved 

 in this most useful compilation palaeobotanists of all countries must be long 

 indebted to the author. 



ANTHROPOLOGY 



Modern Man and his Forerunners. A Short Study of the Human Species 

 Living and Extinct. By H. G. F. Spurrell, M.A., M.B., F.Z.S. [Pp. 

 xii + 192, with 5 plates and 1 map.] (London : G. Bell & Sons, Ltd., 1917. 

 Price "js.td. net.) 



This work deals with Modern Man rather than with his Forerunners, descriptions 

 of the latter only being given in order to present to the reader the biological back- 

 ground against which it is necessary to place living man if he is to be studied in a 

 scientific manner. The book is divided into seven chapters, of which the first two 

 give brief descriptions of the general problems which confront the anthropologist 

 and of the place of man in the Animal Kingdom. Part of Chapter II. is very 

 original and suggestive, and the author's account of the habits of some of the 

 lower Primates is interesting and instructive. Chapter III. consists of a light 

 sketch of the extinct species and races of men and their culture, and from this it is 

 evident that Mr. Spurrell accepts most of the conclusions of the extreme school of 

 prehistorians, though he does not enter into details and does not pretend to come 

 to close quarters with the great controversial topics. The later chapters of the 

 book are much the most interesting, and it is clear that the author has devoted 

 himself mainly to social anthropology and sociology, rather than to physical 

 anthropology. Chapter IV. deals with " the growth of human power and numbers 



