PALEONTOLOGY — PHILOLOGY. 373 



many cases where required sections are simply not available in the 

 present phase of study. But it is wished to offer this work for publi- 

 cation within the present year, and it is confidently trusted that any 

 lack in taxonomic completeness will be fairly made up for in biologic 

 interest. As already known to those who have followed previous 

 reports and various preliminary papers, the Cycadeoidese have a far 

 more varied and interesting floral structure than was at first supposed. 



With reference to a better taxonomy of the silicified cycads, it 

 should, however, be emphasized that the attempt to determine the 

 full structural characters and specific variations within the group has 

 been by no means abandoned. On the contrary, a more insistent and 

 determined effort is being made to reach final taxonomic accuracy. 



The most important result of the year has been the description of 

 more completely conserved flowers the structure of which clearly 

 suggests the actual mode of origin of the early gymnosperm seed coats. 

 A preliminary treatment of this fundamentally important subject, 

 indicating a dual homology between seed and flower, and for the first 

 time perhaps breaking real ground for eventual progress in the study 

 of floral evolution, has already been published. (C/. Bibliography.) 



PHILOLOGY. 



Loew, E. A., Oxford, England. Continuation and completion of researches and 

 publication of the " Scriptura Be7ieventana." (For previous reports see 

 Year Books Nos. 9-12.) 



Three months were spent in compiling a catalogue of the extant man- 

 uscripts in Beneventan writing, and this catalogue, which includes over 

 600 items, was published as an appendix to the "Beneventan Script." 

 This work, which gives a comprehensive treatment of the South Italian 

 minuscule, upon which I have been at work for several years, appeared 

 in April of this year, as an Oxford University publication. 



During April and May I was in Germany, where I continued investi- 

 gations begun last year upon the manuscripts written in the ancient 

 writing-center of Wiirzburg, most of which are still preserved in Wiirz- 

 burg. The work proved interesting beyond expectation ; for the great 

 majority of the oldest manuscripts of Wiirzburg are written in the Irish 

 and the Anglo-Saxon scripts of the eighth and early ninth centuries 

 and are thus the clearest possible evidence of the prominent part played 

 by the Irish, and especially by Anglo-Saxon clerics (St. Boniface and 

 his followers) in the culture of that part of Germany. I have been able 

 to obtain photographic reproductions of all the most important manu- 

 scripts and these will serve as material for a publication. 



After leaving Germany, I made a short stop at Paris, where I re- 

 examined the so-called "Bobbio Missal," which is not only one of our 

 oldest liturgical documents, but is also of great paleographical interest. 

 Upon this manuscript, consisting of 600 pages, I have been at work since 



