1904] CURRENT LITERATURE 69 
manner in which the morphological part of the work is treated, one is hardly 
prepared for the statement that in gymnosperms there is no alternation of 
generations, although traces of alternation are demonstrable, while in angio- 
sperms the reduction of the prothallium has proceeded so far that sure homol- 
ogies can no longer be shown and the alternation of generations has entirely 
disappeared. Of particular interest are the introductory pages on the evo- 
lutionary composition of groups, the homologies between them, and the causes 
of the changes in the homologous organs of the cormophytes. 
The bryophytes are subdivided, as usual, into Musci and Hepaticae; in 
the pteridophytes three groups are recognized, the Filicinae, Equisetinae, 
and Lycopodinae; the gymnosperms are subdivided into six classes, Cyca- 
dinae, Bennettitinae, Cordaitieae, Ginkgoanae, Coniferae, and Gnetinae.— 
C. J. CHAMBERLAIN. 
NOTES FOR STUDENTS. 
RENAULT® concludes from the study of a number of plant sections that 
vegetative activity was greater in the Carboniferous age than at present. An 
extraordinary development of vascular and other tissues is recounted and 
figured.— H. C. COWLES 
ARBER’ has recorded Glossopteris Browniana Brongn. from Sisi in 
Rhodesia, the containing formation being probably Permo-Carboniferous. A 
species of Calamites is recorded from the Tuli coalfield; and the Sengwe 
coalfield in northern Matabeleland yields an undetermined specimen of wood 
and two stems of the Eu-Sigillarian Rhytidolepis type—E. W. BERRY. 
Mov.iarD finds® that in pure cultures of Ascodolus sp. perithecia are not 
developed, although there is a considerable development of the vegetative 
mycelium. In all cases of fruiting individuals bacteria are present in 
abundance. He thinks that this is a fact of large significance, though he has 
no suggestion as to the exact office of the bacteria in this interesting case of 
symbiosis.—H. C. COWLES. 
SEWARD? describes a new species of Dictyozamites from a low horizon 
in the Estuarine series of the Inferior Oolite of Yorkshire. The genus and 
its distribution in Jurassic times are discussed somewhat fully, and a com- 
parison is instituted between the lower Mesozoic floras of Japan, Bornholm, 
SRENAULT, B., Sur l’activité végétative aux époques anciennes. Compt. Rend. 
136 : 401-403. nes 
7 ARBE . A. N., Notes on some fossil A collected by Mr. Molyneux in 
Rhodesia. ee Jour. Geol. Soc. Lond. 59: 288- 1903. 
5Mo wapagee Réle des bactéries dans la Seite des périthéces des Ascobolus. 
Compt. Rend. 136: 899-901. 1903. 
9SEWARD, A. C., On the occurrence of Dictyozamites in England, with remarks 
on European and eastern Mesozoic floras. Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. Lond. 59: 217- 
232. pl. 15. 1903. 
