Books and Current Literature. 69 



were also curved more closely about the leader than on other 

 trees or on the lower branches of the same tree. 



The University of Nebraska. 



BOOKS AND CURRENT LITERATURE. 



Fossil Plants. — It is twelve years since Volume I of 

 Professor Seward's work on Fossil Plants appeared, but no one 

 will complain on that score since Volume II, as the author well 

 says, would have been largely out of date if written ten years 

 ago. * It impresses the writer as being a becter book in every 

 way than Volume I. The general plan is the same, the discus- 

 sion of the fossil forms being preceded in every case bv a good 

 account of the living members of the group, amply illustrated. 

 The volume contains a wealth of accurate information which is 

 well up to date, both botanical and paleobotanical literature 

 having evidently been thoroughly digested. There can be no 

 question but what it is the best work of its kind available, more 

 especially for the botanical reader, to whom it should prove 

 indispensable. 



The treatment is devoted primarily to Lycopodiaceous and 

 fern -like plants, but opens with the concluding matter regarding 

 the Spbenoph} Hales, which were not completed in Volume I. 

 The lapse of time makes it possible to describe Scott's work on 

 Sphenophyllum fertile and Cheirostrohus , two extremely inter- 

 esting members of this phylum, which enormously extends our 

 knowledge of these ancient plants. Professor Seward is entirely 

 right in not merging the Sphenophyllales in the Equisetales, as 

 some authors have proposed, as he is also in not adopting Pro- 

 fessor Bower's proposal to refer the recent Psilotaceae to this 

 Paleozoic phylum. Chapter xiii, the second chapter of Volume 

 II, is devoted to the Psilotales {Psiloiimi,Tmesipteris) and while 

 short, correctly maintains these specialized modern forms as 

 the representatives of a distinct group. 



Chapters xiv to xviii, including some 240 pages, are de- 

 voted to the Lycopodiales, using that term in a very general 

 sense. After discussing the recent forms and the curious 



♦Seward. A. C. — Fossil Plnnts, Vol. II, pp. 624, illus. 265. Cambridge, England. 1910. 

 (S. P. Putnam's Sons, $5.00). 



