lO-l TlIK .lolK.NAL OF BOTA>'Y 



interclians^e of seed-drift between the (^Id and the New World, shows 

 that the Afts from the New to the Old World would be unimportant 

 and not to be compared with the large amount of eifective seed-drift 

 that must be rushed in a few months across the tropical Atlantic in 

 the streams of the North and Main equatorial currents. This im- 

 i).)i-tant conclusion is made the basis of a comparison between the 

 West Indian and West African Floras. 



Several chapters, com])rising nearly loO pages, are devoted to a 

 detailed discussion of the individual plants, com])rising first the larger 

 foreign drift of the Turks Islands and secondly the West Indian 

 littoral Hora in general. The distribution of each plant and its 

 c:ipacitv for dispersal are fully considered. The two following 

 ch:n)tei"s deal with the general characters and geological structure and 

 flora of the Turks Islands. The plants may be grou})ed as those of 

 the shore and those of the inland scrub. The former are not only 

 found over the West Indian region but often also in the Old World. 

 The latter are all plants of the New World. 



Sliort chaptei-s are devoted to the Differentiation theor}' and its 

 relation to Distribution, and the three closing chapters are a detailed 

 account of the author's observations on the flora of tlie Azores. His 

 iirincipil study was the altitudinal ranges of the indigenous plants, 

 their distribution and mode of dispersal, in which last birds have 

 l)layed the principal part. 



An ap])endix gives in the fonii of notes, to A\hich reference is 

 made in tlie body of the work, fuller details on si;ecilic points, and 

 there is (iuallv a verv full General Index. 



A. B. R. 



BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, etc. 



At the meeting of the Linnean Society on A{)ril IDth Dr. D. H. Scott 

 read a paper on '* The Heterangiums of the British Coal-Measures,'' 

 illustrated by lantern-slides, of which tlie foHowing is an abstract : — 

 Jleterungiuin Corda is a genus of Carboniferous plants, based on 

 specimens with the structure preserved, and now classed with the 

 Pteridos])erms. The stem is })rotostelic, with parenchyma among the 

 tracheides ; the perij)heral xylem-strands and leaf -traces are mesarch ; 

 the nietaxylem and secondary tracheides have multiseriate bordered 

 ]»its. There are plates of sclereides in the cortex, and the hypoderina 

 consists of alternating radial bands of fibres and parenchyma. In the 

 only fully investigated s])ecies, H. Grievii, a single leaf-trace bimdle 

 ])asses out into each leaf. In this species the leaves were large and 

 c(mipound, of the Sphmopfrris type. William.'^on in his published 

 papers only recognized two British species, //. Grievii and IL. tiVuc- 

 (tidcH. Under the former name he included not only the Lower 

 Carboniferous plant from Burntisland, on which the species ^Vas 

 founded, but also certain Coal-Measure forms from Dulesgate. In 

 the joint work by Williamsoji and the author the same nomenclature 

 was adoi)ted, b»it a second forni from Dulesgate was also (lescril)ed under 

 the provisional name II. ct/li/idricin/i. Jl. filiceoidr.s, a Coal-Measure 

 i^pecies from Halifax, remark. ihle t\>r the great dcvclupmrnt and jier- 



