No. 2, March, 1921] PALEOBOTANY 165 



age and a former occupation of areas where now they are extinct. The oldest authentic 

 fossils of sweet gum are found in the Eocene of Greenland, Alaska, and Oregon. Records 

 in the Oligocene are very rare, the only species having been found in Italy. The Miocene 

 shows nine species, surprisingly like the modern sweet gum. In the Pliocene the gums were 

 cosmopolitan in the northern hemisphere, but the succeeding glacial period killed them out 

 in Europe, whereas they survived in North America and Asia. High mountains and seas in 

 southern Europe prevented the escape of the gums to more genial climes in that conti- 

 nent ; but in Asia and North America southern migration and return after the glacial period 

 was possible. The witch hazels shows similar distribution today in America and Asia. Witch 

 hazel occurs as fossils in Europe before the glacial epoch, but is extinct there now. — Charles 

 A. Shull. 



1100. Berry, E. W. Paleontology and pragmatism. Science 52:529-531. Dec. 3, 1920. 



1101. Browne, Isabel M. P. Phylogenetic considerations on the internodal vascular 

 strands of Equisetum New Phytol. 19:11-25. 7 fig. 1920. — The internodal strands of 

 Equisetum are phylogenetic units that may conveniently be termed bundles, though it is not 

 suggested that they are in any strict sense equivalent to the ordinary internodal bundles 

 of angiosperms. The types of bundles found in axes of recent species are considered to have 

 been derived from a single continuous xylem strand, with the metaxylem on its flanks, by the 

 replacement of xylem with parenchymatous elements. — I. F. Lewis. 



1102. Dahms, p. tJber rumanischen Bernstein. [On Roumanian Amber.] Centralbl. f. 

 Miner. 1920: 102-118. Fig. S. 1920. — The author discusses the sparingly fossiliferous fossil 

 gum or resin "Rumanite" from the Tertiary of Roumania. — E. W. Berry. 



1103. Fisher, Hugo. Pfianzenmetamorphose und Abstammungslehre. (Plant meta- 

 morphosis and evolution.) Naturwissenschaften 8: 268-271. 1920. — The change is noted 

 from Goethe's concept of Morphologic and from its early descriptive literature to that of 

 modern developmental history of plant organs, in which through experimentation the inves- 

 tigator has obtained an insight into the causes underlying changes in plant forms. The deep- 

 ening of the meaning of plant metamorphosis when interpreted in light of the evolution of 

 plants is then pointed out with numerous examples. We see a development in a certain direc- 

 tion (Orthogenesis of Eimer) but no inheritance of acquired characters is proven. The 

 causes of such evolution are still unknown, but outer causes play only a small part. Meta- 

 morphosis is not purposeful except, perhaps, in certain cases, such as adaptations found in 

 changes from a water to land habitat. — Orton L. Clark. 



1104. Florin, Rudolf. Einige chinesische Tertiarpflanzen. [Chinese tertiary plants.] 

 Svensk. Bot. Tidskrift 14: 239-243. Fig. 11. 1920.— The author records the following Ter- 

 tiary plants from near Han-nor in Mongolia: Pinus sp., Comptonia anderssonii n. sp., Car- 

 pinus sp., and Phyllites. — E. W. Berry. 



1105. Johansson, Nils. Neue Mesozoische Pflanzen aus Ando in Norwegen. [New 

 Mesozoic plants from Ando in Norway.] Svensk. Bot. Tidskrift 14: 249-257. Fig. 2S. 1920. 

 — From the upper Jurassic or Lower Cretaceous of Ando — the only known Mesozoic plant 

 locality in Norway — the author records Cladophlebis, Taeniopteris, Feildenia, and three 

 species of Sciadopitytes, of which two — S. lagerheimii and S. persulcata — are considered as 

 new. — E. W. Berry. 



1106. Krasser, F. Die Doggerflora von Sardinia. [The Dogger flora of Sardinia.] 



Sitzungsber. Akad. Wiss. Wien 1 (no. 129) : 3-26. 1920.— In a continuation of previous studies 

 the author records 37 species of plants from the middle Jurassic of Sardinia. Twenty-three 

 of these are common to the Oolite of the English Yorkshire coast region. A new William- 

 sonialian fructification is described as Laconiella sardinica, an Araucarian seed is described 

 as Araucarites sardinicus, and a new type of stem is described as Sardoa robitscheki. — E. W. 

 Berry. 



