94 THE A/MERICAN BOTANIST. 



to receive additional contributions no matter how small. 

 Everyone interested in the study of nature will wish, of course, 

 to be represented in the undertaking by at least a small con- 

 tribution. The object of the Association is one worthy of all 

 encouragement. 



BOOKS AND WRITERS. 



Until very recently the origin of the flowering plants was 

 shrouded in considerable mystery. Fossils that are very evi- 

 dently closely related to modern species if, indeed, they are not 

 identical with them, are not uncommon in the later rocks, but 

 this series of specimens does not continue to the beginning and 

 the task has always been to connect them with some of the 

 older plant lines. Evidence that throws light upon this point, 

 however, has rapidly accumulated during the past few years, 

 and now the palaeobotanist is fairly certain of the main lines 

 of descent, at least. It used to be thought, and is still taught 

 in our schools, that the flowering plants originated from Algae 

 by way of the mosses, and much study has been brought to 

 bear upon the moss sporophyte in an endeavor to show how 

 the fern plant could have arisen from it. The evidence of 

 fossil plants, however, does not support this theory and it now 

 seems more likely that the ferns and their allies originated di- 

 rectly from some forms of algae. After this gap is bridged 

 over, there is still the hiatus between the ferns and flowering 

 plants. This, botanists have often attempted to carry a line 

 across by means of Lycopodiiim or Sclaginella, deriving the 

 pine cone from the fruiting parts of one or the other, and in- 

 ferring the rise of true flowers by further modifications. It is 

 now believed, however, that neither of these groups have given 

 rise to any more modern branch, and that the club mosses and 

 Selaginellas that we have at present have come down to us 

 from remote ages, practically unchanged except as to size, num- 

 bers and a few bizarre points in structure. The ferns, hither- 



