474 



NATURE 



[February 8, 19 12 



Miss Stoddart tells the story of his turbulent life in 

 jifreat detail, and she has apparently neglected no 

 means available to her of tracing the successive steps 

 of his chequered career. She has been aided in her 

 search by German scholars like SudhofT, Hartmann. 

 the Strunzs, and others, and whilst we may deprecate 

 the glamoyr with which she has sought to surround 

 li. t subject, we bear willing testimony to the patience 

 iiul unwearied devotion she has brought to her self- 

 imposed task. 



Worn out by persecution, homeless and a wanderer 

 to the last, Hohenheim ended his strenuous life at 

 Salzburg on September 24, 154 1, in the forty-seventh 

 year of his age. On a tablet to his memory in the 

 Church of St. Sebastian are the words, "To the 

 living Peace, to the Sepulchred Eternal Rest." What 

 irony ! Paracelsus knew no peace in life, and even 

 death brought little rest to his bones. His remains 

 have been constantly disturbed, most frequently in 

 attempts to disprove the allegation that he met his 

 end by violence. 



A CARBONIFEROUS FLORA. 

 Mededeelifigen van de Rijksopsporing van Dclfstoffen. 

 No. 3. Anleitung zur Bestimmung der Karbon- 

 pflanzen West-Europas, mit besonderer Beriick- 

 sichtigung der in den Niederlanden und den benach- 

 barten Liindern gefundenen oder noch zu erwarten- 

 den Arten. By Dr. W. J. Jongmans. Band i., 

 Thallophyta, Equisetales, Spenophyllales. Pp. 

 viii + 482. (Herausgegeben von der Staatlichen 

 Bohrverwaltung in der Niederlanden.) (Freiburg 

 in Sachsen : Craz and Gerlach (Joh. Stettner), n.d.) 

 Price 15 marks. 

 T N this volume Dr. Jongmans states that his aim 

 •*- is to bring together information contained in the 

 very extensive literature relating to West European 

 Carboniferous plants. He asks readers to bear in 

 mind the fact that he would have preferred to deal 

 with the material more critically than has been pos- 

 sible without an examination of the numerous original 

 specimens scattered in European museums, adding 

 that what he has done should be considered as the 

 arrangement of building material rather than as the 

 construction of the complete edifice, a task postponed 

 to a later stage. 



The volume is written especially with a view to 

 facilitate the determination of Carboniferous plants, 

 and for this purpose it cannot fail to be of great value. 

 The two bulky volumes on the bibliography of fossil 

 plants published in 1910 and 191 1 are in themselves a 

 striking testimony to the devotion of Dr. Jongmans 

 to palaeobotany and to his willingness to give his 

 time and energy to tasks which few students would 

 attempt. In the volume before us we have further 

 evidence of the author's industry and of his wide 

 acquaintance with the literature of the subject. 



In dealing with fossil plants, an author may confine 

 himself to concise descriptions and a liberal allowance 

 of illustrations in order to furnish students with data 

 for the determination of species, or for the study of 

 distributional problems; or he may treat the subject 

 from the point of view of a botanist who wishes to 

 NO. 2206, VOL. 88] 



present facts relating to the structural and general 

 morphological features of extinct types. Dr. Jong- 

 mans 's book is chiefly of the former kind, and con- 

 tains a wealth of information culled from many 

 sources, together with first-hand observations. 



An inspection of the different sections of the volume 

 raises some little doubt as to the complete success 

 of the undertaking; even a few good illustrations of 

 anatomical features would have considerably increased 

 the interest of the descriptions, and the impressions 

 and casts would have acquired a much greater interest 

 and vitality. A correlation table of Carboniferous 

 strata in different countries would be a welcome addi- 

 tion in a work which will be used by students of 

 stratigraphy ; while, on the other hand, one feels that, 

 the author's aim being what it is, the treatment would 

 be more helpful were it more critical. 



The perusal of a volume such as this inevitably 

 suggests the question, is the result achieved com- 

 mensurate with the enormous labour involved? To 

 give an answer in the negative might seem ungracious 

 considering the thoroughness of the work and the 

 undoubted service rendered by the author ; but it is 

 difficult to repress a tendency to wish that Dr. Jong- 

 mans had not carried self-sacrifice quite so far. To 

 this volume, in which the author has unquestionably 

 performed a welcome service in arranging and pre- 

 senting in a convenient form a mass of scattered 

 information, one may apply Huxley's words, "It is 

 the organisation of knowledge rather than its increase 

 that is wanted just now," though from a scientific 

 point of view one cannot help feeling that the elaborate 

 treatment of the disjecta membra of Carboniferous 

 plants as represented by fragmentary casts and im- 

 pressions may endow them with an importance greater 

 than they deserve. 



The tables scattered through the book, designed to 

 assist the systematist in distinguishing between allied 

 species, are a new feature, and should prove useful 

 in practice, even though many of the characters on 

 which supposed species are founded are altogether 

 insufficient if scrutinised in the light of modern 

 plants. 



It is impossible in a short notice to do justice to 

 the contents of the volume. The book is essentially 

 a w^ork of reference, and students of Carboniferous 

 plants, whatever may be their views as to such points 

 as I have raised, must acknowledge themselves in- 

 debted to one who has produced a well-ordered store- 

 house of data, valuable alike to those whose interests 

 are chiefly stratigraphical and to those who are 

 primarily concerned with the study of fossil plants 

 as guides to phytogeny. 



The account of the Equisetales occupies 350 pages. 

 A short description of the group is followed by a con- 

 cise description, with figures, of the known Palseozoic 

 species referred to Equisetites and placed in the 

 family Equisetaceae. Under the second family, Proto- 

 calamariaceae, three species of Asterocalamites are 

 described, and full references and synonyms are given, 

 also the geological horizons. The greater part of the 

 volume is taken up with the numerous species of the 

 genus Calamites, their identification being greatly 

 facilitated bv clear kevs and well-chosen illustrations. 



