284 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



logical reduction of sulphates in land-locked lagoon areas, with 

 occasional influxes of water from the ocean to reinaugurate the 

 cycle of sulphur deposition. 



An important memoir on the oolitic iron-ores of Wabana, 

 Newfoundland, is contributed by A. O. Hayes (Memoir 78, 

 Geological Survey of Canada, 191 5, 163 pp.)- The ore occurs in 

 shales and sandstones of Lower Ordovician age and is believed 

 to be a primary bedded deposit, the iron content being present 

 in the sediments at the time the series was laid down. The 

 oolites were formed out of the fine-grained, unconsolidated, 

 ferruginous sediments of the sea floor. 



A very full discussion of the origin of the lead and zinc ores of 

 the Joplin (Missouri) area is given by C. E. Siebenthal (Bull. 606, 

 United Slates Geological Survey, 191 5, 283 pp.)- These are of 

 great economic importance, and form a conspicuous example of 

 the occurrence of sulphide ores in a region remote from igneous 

 activity. The theory is elaborated that the Joplin ores were 

 segregated from disseminated lead and zinc minerals in the 

 Cambrian and Ordovician rocks of the Ozark uplift, by the 

 agency of circulating artesian waters of alkaline-saline sul- 

 phuretted type. 



PALEOBOTANY IN 1915. By Marie C. Stopes, D.Sc, Ph.D., 



University College, London. 



Paleobotany is a science of few professors, though there 

 are, of course, very large numbers of both geologists and 

 botanists whose researches contribute to the body of facts 

 encompassed by the science. Three years ago it might have 

 been said truly that there were less than two dozen notable 

 palseobotanists all the world over, and of this small num- 

 ber no fewer than four of the most prominent have died 

 recently. Germany has lost both her senior men ; Potonie, 

 Professor in Berlin, died shortly before the war, and the aged 

 and still more famous Count Solms-Laubach died in Strass- 

 burg in November (191 5) : there are no men of equal standing 

 left in Germany. France has also lost two of her seniors within 

 a few months. In Rene Zeiller, Professor in Paris, not only 

 France but the whole world has lost one of the greatest 

 palseobotanists who have ever lived. He was shortly followed 

 by Octave Lignier, Professor in Caen, famous for his admirable 

 work on Bennettites. In this country we have lost Prof. 



