RECENT ADVANCES IN SCIENCE 289 



is chiefly anatomical (see below). On fossil Thallophyta 

 little is ever done, but Dr. D. Ellis describes some " Fossil 

 Micro-organisms from the Jurassic and Cretaceous Rocks of 

 Great Britain " (Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh, vol. xxxv.), includ- 

 ing fungi with hyphse and spores, and also several supposed 

 bacteria from various horizons. 



Anatomy. — Plant cuticles have extraordinary resistent 

 powers, and often the epidermis of an otherwise disintegrated 

 plant is well preserved. As the shape and arrangement of 

 the epidermis cells sometimes form decisive criteria in deter- 

 mining species, considerable attention has been paid to their 

 study recently, and, as usual, there is a sheaf of small papers 

 on the subject this year. Dr. T. G. Halle in " Some Xerophytic 

 Leaf-Structures in Mesozoic Plants " (Geol. Foren. Stockholm) 

 deals principally with epidermal structures ; cuticle prepara- 

 tions are also important in Ernst Antev's paper M Einige 

 Bemerkungen iiber Cycadopteris Brauniana, Zingo and C. 

 Zeilleri n.sp." in the same journal. E. Bayer describes 

 " Mikroskopische Praeparate der Kutikula der fossilen Pflanzen 

 Sclerophyllum alatum " (Bull. Kongr. bohmisch Natf.). Dr. W. 

 Gothan has a paper on the epidermis of Carboniferous Neurop- 

 terids (Jahrb. K. preuss. Geol. Landcsanst.) and on the methods 

 of dealing with them (Monatsber. deutsch. Geol. Ges.). E. M. 

 Barbour records the discovery of large numbers of small sheets 

 of cuticles supposed to be Cordaitean, in the Eurypterid beds 

 of Nebraska (Amer. Journ. Set. vol. xxxix.). The peculiarly 

 preserved sheets of cuticle of the " paper coal " of Russia 

 play an important part in the beautifully illustrated memoir 

 by Prof. Zalessky on Lepidodendron Olivieri and L. tenerrimum 

 (Mem. Comite Geol. Petrograd, livr. 125). 



Dealing with the petrified internal anatomy, Dr. Kidston 

 and the late Prof. Gwynne-Vaughan conclude their valuable 

 series on the Osmundacese (Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh, 

 vol. 1. part 2) which was published at the end of 1914, but 

 came into circulation in 191 5 and is mentioned as the last 

 work of a very significant anatomical and phylogenetic series. 

 O. A. Derby (Amer. Journ. Sci. vol. xxxix.) gives illustrations 

 showing the complex vascular anatomy of the stem described 

 as Tietea singularis by Count Solms-Laubach. Work on the 

 Pteridosperms is represented by Dr. D. H. Scott's paper on 

 the Heterangiums of the British Coal Measures, and by the 



