MARQUIS DE SAPORTA. 599 



last year a valuable report on the Mesozoic Plants of Portugal. A 

 summary of this last work, in connection more particularly with its 

 bearing on the paloeobotany of North America, from the pen of Pro- 

 fessor Lester F. Ward, a fellow laborer in the United States, has 

 lately appeared in " Science " ; and perhaps with the exception of 

 those of his great rival, Heer of Zurich, who passed away before him, 

 no European works on the botany of the Mesozoic period are m(»re 

 frequently referred to than those of Saporta. 



Though a specialist in the floras of the later geological periods, he 

 could enter with enthusiasm into the whole history of the vegetable 

 kingdom, in a manner at once elaborate, careful, and attractive to gen- 

 eral readers, and with an enlightened grasp of the succession of plants 

 in time, and of their relations to the various changes of climate and 

 geography in the different periods. This is remarkable in his popular 

 work, " Le Monde des Plantes," which goes over the whole field of 

 geological botany, is written in a clear and vivid style, and illustrated 

 with geological maps and very clever restorations of the forests of dif- 

 ferent periods. 



His memoirs also cover a wide geographical range, as specimens 

 from many regions were submitted to him, and he was always ready, 

 in the kindest and most genial spirit, to give the benefit of his advice 

 and information to his fellow laborers in every part of the world. 

 His work was characterized by much discrimination and care, and by 

 a judicious attention to the geological horizons of the plants he studied, 

 but, like many other paloeobotanists, he was occasionally carried 

 away by his enthusiasm, so as to recognize as plants mere imitative 

 markings. This was especially the case in the controversies in which 

 he took part respecting the nature of certain markings on rocks whose 

 algal nature had been maintained by Delgado and others, while to 

 Natherst, and to palaeontologists generally who were familiar with the 

 tracks of animals and the imitative tracings on the surfaces of aqueous 

 deposits, they were of animal or of inorganic origin. 



In conjunction with Professor Marion, Saporta published a work on 

 the Evolution of Plants, which forms three volumes of the French 

 International Library of Science. It abounds with curious informa- 

 tion of a very suggestive character, but was perhaps too ambitious in 

 the present state of knowledge. This the authors frankly admit, stat- 

 ing, in conclusion, that they can but point out a few landmarks to their 

 successors, "who may decipher the inscriptions of which we can but 

 spell out some letters." 



But though an evolutionist, Saporta was by no means an agnostic. 



