No. 3, April, 1921] 



PALEOBOTANY 287 



the land plants have as a part of their inheritance, e.g., archegonia, alternation of sporophyte 

 and gametophyte generations, etc. By the progressive lifting of the densely populated sea- 

 bottom, especially in regions of tropical temperatures and abundant insolation, the beginnings 

 of the subsequent land flora were differentiated from different algal types. It follows that the 

 different lines of terrestrial plants are only indirectly related through their algal ancestors, that 

 is, they are strictly polyphyletic, and some, such as the Lycopodiales, are considered to have 

 had an independent ancestry from the Plankton stage. The various characters that tie the 

 vascular plants together are thus considered as the results of their like physiologic experi- 

 ence in passing from a dense medium, poor in oxygen and light and rich in nutrient salts, 

 into a rare medium with abundant oxygen and light, but deficient in nutrient salts a,nd water. 

 The author considers that such a form as Chara points the way but failed at the time of the 

 transmigration by having lacked a diploid phase to produce wind dispersed spores. The 

 Florideae failed to pass the test by reason of their inefficient cellular organization and the 

 Phaeophyceae by reason of their never having attained fertilization in situ.— £. W. Berry. 



2008. DoLLFUS, G. F., et P. H. Fritel. Catalogue raisonne des Characees fossiles du 

 Bassin de Paris. [Critical envimeration of the fossil Characeae of the Paris Basin.] Bull. 

 Soc. G6ol. France IV, 19: 243-261. Fig.23 . 1920.— A critical discussion, with illustrations, 

 of the species of Chara founded upon stems and oogonia and recorded from the Tertiary 

 deposits of the Paris Basin. Twenty species and varieties are recognized and these are dis- 

 tributed chronologically as follows: Lower Eocene— Thanetian 2, SparnacianG; Middle Eocene 

 —Lutetian 3, Auversian 2; Upper Eocene 5; Lower Oligocene 3; Upper Oligocene 5.—E. 

 W. Berry. 



2009. Fritel, P. H. Sur I'existence de l'(Eillette : Papaver somniferum var nigrtim D. C, 

 en Provence, a I'epoque quatemaire. [On the existence of the poppy, Papaver somniferum 

 var. nigrum, in the Pleistocene of Provence.] Compt. Rend. Soc. Geol. France 15 : 186. Nov. 

 22, 1920.— Records a fossil capsule, identical with that of the existing form, from the Pleisto- 

 cene of Aygalades in southeastern France. — E. W. Berry. 



2010. HoLMSEN, GuNNAR. Naar invandret granskogen til Kristianiatrakten? [Does the 

 immigrated spruce reach vicinity of Kristiania?] Tidsskr. Skogbruk 28: 165-171. 1920.— 

 Data and discussion bearing on the time at which Norway spruce, Picea excelsa, immigrated 

 to certain parts of Norway. The evidence is furnished by the number of spruce pollen grains 

 found in swamp strata. The spruce came after the Stone Age and before the Bronze Age, 

 the latter being fixed at about 1800 B.C.— J. A. Larsen. 



2011. Kryshtopovich, A. A. Cycadean trunk from Hokkaido. Jour. Geol. Soc. Tokyo 

 27: 1-8. PI. 19. 1920.— Describes from a photograph of a trunk and from microphoto- 

 graphs of histological preparations, a new species of cycad trunk, Cycadeoidea ezoana, from 

 the Cretaceous of Hokkaido, Japan. The features are not especially distinct but the specimen 

 is of unusual interest in indicating a new locality for petrified trunks, and the only known 

 one throughout the vast expanse of Asia except for vague references to the occurrence of simi- 

 lar forms in the upper Gondwana series of India. — E. W. Berry. 



2012. Reid, E. M. On two preglacial floras from Castle Eden (County Durham). Quart. 

 Jour. Geol. Soc. London 76: 104-144. PI. 7-10. 1920.— From disturbed clays beneath the 

 Boulder Clay on the Durham coast the author records 125 species of seeds. Part of the col- 

 lection, comprising 11 species, are all still-existing temperate British forms and are consid- 

 ered as of uppermost Pliocene in age and younger than the Cromerian (many regard the Cro- 

 merian as post Pliocene and the English representative of the first Interglacial) . The balance, 

 with many exotic forms, are considered as coming from about the middle of the Middle Plio- 

 cene. The most abundant form is Potentilla argentea; next come a species of Erica, two of 

 Ranunculus, and an extinct Melissa. The trees and shrubs include Liquidambar, Carpinus 

 (a Japanese form), Betula, Alnus, Crataegus, Rubus, Ilex, Rhus, Aralia, Erica, Solarium, 

 and Spiraea. The environment is pictured as an upland valley with steep hillsides, partly 



