SHORT NOTES 323 



" Pill florls paleam conspicue superantes, valvam Interiorem sub- 

 aequantes." Some of Mr. Robinson's Stow Eedon, W. Norfolk, 

 specimens answer to the above, and are a greater development of the 

 var. Hookeri Syme. — Aethur Bennett. 



Elatixe Hydeopiper in Worcestershire. I was fortunate 

 enough to find this plant growing in great abundance at Westwood 

 Pool near Droitwich, on the 4th August, 1919. Irvine in the 

 Phytologisf, ii. 401 (1857-8) records it as having been found by him 

 "in a mill-pond near Churchill Railway Station, Kidderminster, 

 Worcestershire." — Caeleton Rea. 



REVIEWS. 



Fossil JBlanis, Vol. IT., GlnAyoales, Coniferales, and Gnefnles. 

 By Prof. A. C. Seward. Cambridge University Press. 1919. 

 [Pp. xvi + 544 with 190 illustrations. Price £l'ls. Od. net.] 



With the volume before us the author brings to a conclusion this 

 text-book of Fossil Plants, of which the first volume appeared twenty- 

 one years ago. Probably no one Avho has not actually undertaken a 

 work of a similar character can gauge the magnitude of the task 

 involved. The mere collation of the extensive and widely diffused 

 literature of the subject is in itself no mean feat, and the compre- 

 hensive bibliographies are not the least useful part of a work that 

 occupies an assured position amongst the standard text-books of 

 Palseobotanical literature. 



The first seventy-five pages deal with the Ginkgoales, a summary 

 of the more important features of Ginkgo hiloha, the "living fossil " 

 serving as an introduction to the extinct representatives. With 

 reference to these latter Prof. Seward expresses the opinion that none 

 of the fossil wood referred to Ginkgo is above suspicion. For the 

 leaves belonging to this and allied forms the author proposes a new 

 genus, Ginkgoites^ though the distinction from Baiera, which typically 

 has narrower and more numerous segments, is admittedly arbitrary. 

 The genera Ginkgodium, Czeckanowskia, Feildenia, Plicenicopsis, 

 and DesmicopJiyllnm are regarded as possible representatives of the 

 group, but the other genera usually placed here, viz. Ginkgopsis, 

 Nepliropsis, Psygmophylhim, Rhipidopsis, Saportcea, Dicrano- 

 phylhim, Tricliopitys, and Sewardia., are considered to have been 

 assigned to the Ginkgoales on totally inadequate grounds. 



The account of the recent Conifers is not only admirable as 

 supplying the proper perspective for the Palseobotanist, but also as 

 furnishing a much-needed and judicious summary of the extensive 

 literature on the anatomy of the family which will be welcomed by 

 all classes of students. The author subdivides these into nine tribes, 

 of which three, viz. the Sequoiinese, the Sciadopitinese, and the Phyllo- 

 cladinese, are each represented by but a single genus. The remaining 

 tribes are the AraucarinejE, held to be the most pnmitive, the Cupres- 

 sinese, the Callitrineae (including Callitris, ActinostroMis, and 

 Widdringfonia), the Abictinese, the Podocarpinese, and the Taxinea?. 



