FOSSIL PLANTS 129 



Solanum nigrum there was no other ahen present. But as the 

 plant was quite restricted to this area, which is a nursery for 

 young trees, we can scarcely claim the plant as a native of the 

 county. My own belief is that the Draba was brought with ash 

 saplings (probably from Derbyshire) to the nursery near the 

 Abbey ; that place being found unsuitable, they were transferred 

 to this hilly woodland (on coralline oolite) and that the plant was 

 thus introduced. — G. Claridge Deuce. 



Malaxis paludosa Sw. — This was discovered in 1908 or 1909 

 in a small mountain bog near Brecon by Miss de Winton. She 

 could only find it in one of many bogs of the kind in the neigh- 

 bourhood, and there was very little of it. I have a specimen. 

 The plant is given in Top. Bot. for no other Welsh county than 

 Carnarvon. — H. J. Riddelsdell. 



REVIEWS. 



Fossil Plants. A Text-Book for Students of Botany and Geology. 

 By Prof. A. C. Seward,"F.R.S. Vol. ii. 8vo, pp. 624, with 265 

 illustrations. Cambridge University Press. Price 15s. net. 



One of the most important contributions to botanical literature 

 made during the past year was furnished by the publication of the 

 second volume of Professor Seward's Fossil Plants. The first 

 volume of this work appeared in 1900, and, though we have had 

 to wait so long for tlie second, its excellence amply atones for its 

 delay. In the present volume the study of the fossil members of 

 the Pteridophyta has been completed, the consideration of the 

 Seed-plants being reserved for a third part. Thoroughly up to 

 date, it deals fully witli fossils of the Mesozoic and Tertiary age, as 

 well as with the Carboniferous remains, and gives a large number 

 of references to original papers, thus enabling any subject to be 

 followed out in detail. 



Its full descriptions of the important plants should prove very 

 useful to students who are beginning the study of the fossil types. 

 At the same time the scope of the book is a wide one, all the 

 better-known forms being mentioned, and it will therefore appeal 

 to all who study the Pteridophyta ancient or modern. 



The consideration of the Sphenophy Hales, which was begun in 

 the first volume, is concluded by an account of the recently dis- 

 covered fertile shoots belonging to that group. The Psilotales 

 are considered in a separate chapter ; the author prefers to retain 

 the PsilotacecB as a division of the Pteridophyta, including only 

 Psilotum, Tmesipteris, and a few doubtful fossil forms, and does 

 not unite them with the Splienophyllales, as several writers have 

 recently done. 



Pages 30-279 are devoted to the Lycopodiales. As in the case 

 of the other groups, the account of the fossil members of the class 

 is preceded by a l)rief account of its recent members, in this case 

 the genera Lycopodium, Selaginella, and Isoetes. By means of 

 these and similar admirably selected and written sections, the 



