HANDBOOK OF CRYPTOGAMIC BOTANY. 285 



an accurate account of what is actually known of them that the 

 volume closes. 



To each of the seven groui3S mentioned there is appended an 

 account of the fossil remains belonging to it, when any such are 

 known to occur ; and the comparatively brief portion of the book thus 

 devoted to Palaeophytology probably contains the most concise and 

 trustworthy sketch of the subject which is available to the student. 

 This is only what might be expected from the fact that, as inti- 

 mated in the preface, this portion of the work has passed through 

 the hands of Mr. Carruthers. The views taken of controverted 

 positions are generally those which are identified with the name of 

 that distinguished palaBobotanist, ex.gr., Xematophycns (Prototaxites) 

 appears among the Alga) ; Peronosporites among the Oomycetes ; 

 VoJhmannia and Calanwstachi/s are described as Equisetaceous 

 fructifications, and allusion is made to their possession of potential 

 elaters ; the Gallican heresy of Brongniart which places SujiUaria 

 among the Gymnosperms is sternly rebuked : — ' ' Its true place is 

 undoubtedly near akin to Lejndendron in the order SehujinellacecB/' 

 But surely, instead of the mention of Van Tieghem as the authority 

 for the diploxylous leaf-trace bundles, the name given ought to have 

 been that of our own countryman, Prof. Williamson, the " malleus 

 hcBveticoriim,'" who, boldly contending for the faith, has since 1870 

 given the true explanation of a secondary centrifugal xylem, while 

 Van Tieghem is only a semi-repentant follower of the heresiarch 

 Brongniart. 



The bibliography of this part of the work points to an undoubted 

 want in our botanical literature, which will, it is to be hoped, be 

 soon supplied by some competent writer. The only English text- 

 books on Palaeophytology mentioned, or indeed that could be 

 mentioned, are those of Balfour and Dawson. Balfour had no 

 special attainments in this department of Botany, and his work, 

 even if a convenient manual when first issued, has now become so 

 obsolete that it is, in more senses than one, a Fossil Botany. 

 Dawson's book, though quite recent, is not at all suited to the 

 wants of the British botanist. It is adapted to the meridian of 

 Toronto rather than to that of London, its examples being to a 

 large extent taken from American sources unfamiliar to us. It 

 suffers, moreover, from an entire want of proportion, undue space 

 being given to the fancies of the writer on comparatively trivial 

 matters, the test of the importance of any question apparently being 

 whether it has been the subject of a Dawsonian memoir or not. 

 Of course we are to have the inevitable Clarendon Press translation 

 of a German work. Solms-Laubach's ' Palseophytologie ' in an 

 English dress will doubtless be a valuable addition to botanical 

 and geological libraries ; but, in addition to this, we certainly want 

 a work founded to a large extent on British examples, and referring, 

 where possible, to specimens accessible to our own students. 

 Some years ago, I urged upon Prof. Williamson the need of such 

 a Manual, and in reply, while fully acknowledging the reality of 

 the want, he said that he had been obliged by the pressure of 

 original work to give up the idea he had entertained of some 



