56o SCIENCE PROGRESS 



Memoirs on Special Floras this year include two further 

 handsome quartos on Devonian plants by R. Kidston and 

 W. H. Lang, continuing their series on the Rhynie Chert, viz. 

 part 4, " Restorations of the Vascular Cryptogams " ; and 

 part 5, " The Thallophyta occurring in the Peat-bed," Trans. 

 Roy. Soc. Edi7t., vol. lii, pt. 4, Nos. 32 & 33, pp. 831-54, and 

 5 pis., and pp. 856-902, and 10 pis. The first of these papers 

 will be widely consulted, as it gives clear and explicit restora- 

 tions of a life-like character of all four of the forms, and discusses 

 the morphological significance of their very primitive structure. 

 The second contains full descriptions of many well-preserved 

 hyphal fungi ; these are numbered, and to some of them 

 definite (new) specific names are given. It is concluded that 

 the majority are best described as belonging to the non-septate 

 genus Palceomyces. The micro-photographs illustrating these 

 forms are of notable quality and beauty. The concluding 

 division of the memoir consists of a careful description of the 

 horizontal sequence of the plants in the chert beds and the 

 conditions of deposition of the plant material and the pene- 

 trating silica. It is concluded that the plants represent a true 

 land vegetation, and the infiltrating mineral was possibly 

 supplied by volcanic fumaroles. 



Among studies of the carboniferous floras should come first 

 that of H. Yabe and S. Endo, " Discovery of Stems of a Cala- 

 mites from the Palaeozoic of Japan " {Sci. Rep. Tohoku Imper. 

 Univ., Ser. 2, vol. v. No. 3, pp. 93-6, i pL), because though 

 the paper is short, it contains an account of a unique specimen, 

 viz. the only Upper Palaeozoic species known from its anatomical 

 structure from Japan : the only other Japanese carboniferous 

 plant- being a very doubtful impression. Although many 

 coal-measure plants are known from China, none other is 

 recorded from Japan, where the deposits appear to have been 

 entirely marine and without any coal-beds. The specimen is 

 not well preserved, but seems to be undoubtedly a Calamites 

 of the Arthropitys type. 



From Belgium come once more further contributions to the 

 detailed consideration of the coal-bearing strata of that country 

 by A. Renier, " Les Gisements Houillers de la Belgique," Ann. 

 des Mines Belg., 192 1, vol. xxii, i" & 2""^ liv. A contribution 

 of considerable novelty and value is found in D. Davies's 

 " Ecology of the Westphalian and the Lower Part of the 

 Staffordian series of Clydach Vale and Gilfach Goch " (Quart. 

 Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. Ixxvii, pt. i, pp. 30-74, pi. ii. The work is 

 based on over 45,000 field records and many thousands of 

 collected specimens, and gives a thoroughly detailed account 

 of the conditions at the time of deposition and the plants 

 contributing to the accumulations. Once such careful records 



