BOOKS AND CURRENT LITERATURE 



Fossil Plants. — This third volume of Seward's^ work, appropriately- 

 dedicated to the late Professor Zeiller, is separated from vol. ii by an 

 interval of seven years, and from vol. i by nineteen years. Naturally 

 in a work extending over so long a period of time much unevenness 

 of treatment will be unavoidable, and while the long delay is not with- 

 out recompense in the amount of new material that it has been possible 

 to include, it scarcely adds to a synoptic presentation. We are told 

 that vol. iv, which concludes the work, is now in press and will be 

 issued very soon. 



This has been a noteworthy undertaking and the results in certain 

 directions are altogether admirable. There can be no doubt of the 

 usefulness of the book, particularly in the case of mature students and 

 professienal morphologists. The author has a wide acquaintane with 

 the literature, especially in the field of morphology, and if the book 

 did not seem to be pervaded with an air of didactic omniscience it 

 would be ungracious to criticize it. The unevenness of treatment is 

 the chief defect. It is impossible to discover any method of selection 

 of matter — unimportant and doubtful objects are discussed, particularly 

 if they happen to be British, as for example the fossilized phloem that 

 has been christened Vectia, while more important material is not even 

 mentioned. In a large work one expects a well formulated method of 

 selection or an avowed purpose "of ignoring a part of the field in which 

 the author is on unfamiliar ground. Perhaps the author does not have 

 any such feeling, but certainly the anatomical part in which his chief 

 interest has hitherto lain is exceedingly well done and cannot be criti- 

 cized, except as differences of opinion naturally exist in the interpreta- 

 tion of various structures. When, however, he deals with Paleozoic 

 seeds preserved as casts and irhpressions, or with fronds of cycado- 

 phytes and similar classes of remains, the work abounds in errors of 

 omission and commission, and presents a very incomplete picture of 

 this aspect of the subject. I have, in another place, dwelt upon some 

 of these points at considerable length. They weaken the book's influ- 



* Seward, A. C, Fossil Plants, vol. 3i Cambridge Biological Series, xviii -|- 

 656 pp. 629 figs. Cambridge, University Press, 1917 (S4.50). 



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