PALiEOBOTANY IN 1921 559 



as a sort of valve by means of which the passage of water into 

 the central cylinder is enabled to take place in spite of the 

 sudden drop in the memi suction pressure in passing from the 

 cortex to the endodermal layer. 



PALEOBOTANY IN 1921. By Marie CarmichaelStopes.D.Sc, Ph.D., 

 F.L.S., Fellow of University College, London. 



An interesting and attractive Life of the greatest palaeobotanist 

 of his day, Prof. A. G. Nathorst, appeared in April 1921 in 

 Swedish (by T. G. Halle, Geol. Foren. Forhandl., pp. 241-80, 

 illustr.), with a number of portraits of Nathorst at different 

 ages. Were there such a body of persons as there should be 

 in this country taking a serious interest in Palaeobotany, the 

 pamphlet should be translated into English. The complete 

 list of Nathorst's publications which follows (same journal, 

 pp. 281-31 1) accentuates the exceptional width and range of 

 his contributions to various branches of learning. An ap- 

 preciation also appeared in the Botanical Gazette for June 1921, 

 pp. 462-5, by Seward. 



In General Palceobotany the year's most interesting paper 

 is the reprint (Sect. K., Brit. Assoc. Sci., Edin., 1920, pp. 1-17) 

 of the Presidential address on " The Present Position of the 

 Theory of Descent in Relation to the Early History of Plants " 

 to the Botanical Section, by Dr. D. H. Scott. Here he 

 links up and discusses the more recent results of palaeobotany 

 and genetics, and makes many suggestive deductions. One is 

 glad to see the statement : " The evidence from the older 

 Devonian flora, so far as it goes, materially supports the opinion 

 that the seed plants cannot have arisen from Ferns, for the 

 line of the Spermophyta seems to have been already distinct 

 at a time when true ferns had not yet appeared." After 

 indicating many lines of recent development in Palaeobotany, 

 Dr. Scott concludes justly that : " We have indeed a wealth 

 of accumulated facts, but from the point of view of the Theory 

 of Descent they raise more questions than they solve." 



Palceobotany as Viewed by two Geologists (by G. R. Wieland, 

 Science^ vol. liii, pp. 437-9), is based on brief references to the 

 recent papers of Professors A. C. Coleman and C. Schuchert, 

 and the bearing of fossil plant records on climate. Microscopic 

 work on the stomates and cuticles of various plants, chiefly 

 Thinnfeldia rhomboidalis , is described by R. Potonie (" Mitteil- 

 ungen iiber mazerierte kohlige Pflanzenfossilen," Zeits. Bot., 

 vol. xiii, pp. 79-89, 12 figs.). The return of the name Potonie 

 in records of active palseobotanical work is of special interest, 

 as the present Robert Potonie is the young son of the famous 

 Berlin professor who died some years ago. 



