PLANT ARCHAEOLOGY. 271 



Lesquereux, has divided his life between bryology and fossil 

 botany, and whose classical "Traite de Paleontologie Vege- 

 tale" is a systematic compendium of what was known of fossil 

 plants up to the year 1874. But the volume now under notice 

 is by a younger man, Gaston, Comte de Saporta, a Provencal, 

 who has for fifteen years or more been investigating the rich 

 tertiary deposits of Aix and vicinity, in the delta of the 

 Rhone, the results of which have appeared from time to time 

 in memoirs, mainly published in the " Annales des Sciences 

 Naturelles." Besides these weightier and more technical pub- 

 lications. Count Saporta has contributed to the '' Kevue des 

 Deux Mondes " and to " La Nature " subsidiary articles of a 

 popular cast and of fine literary as well as scientific finish. 

 These, now collected and re-edited, form a part of the volume 

 before us, "Le Monde des Plantes avant I'Apparition de 

 FHomme," which has been published since the commencement 

 of the current year. It is the most comprehensive and the 

 most attractive, as well as the most recent, exposition of our 

 subject, is a very readable book from beginning to end, of 

 inviting typography, with abundant illustrations, both of 

 woodcuts in the letter-press and intercalated plates. Although 

 a poj^ular, it is a truly scientific volume. The clear stream 

 of the narrative is hardly at all troubled by the many tech- 

 nical terms which unavoidably strew its course, yet without 

 obstructing its flow, for the author has the peculiarly French 

 gift of happy exposition. As the volume is likely to be 

 reproduced in English, let us hope that it may have a trans- 

 lator in whose hands it may lose nothing of its clearness, and 

 as little as possible of its freshness and spirit. 



To attempt a popular abstract of such a book would be like 

 skimming the cream from the cream, and a critical review 

 would cover too much or too technical ground. Still, we may 

 give some general idea of the contents of the volume. The 

 first part and the most discursive portion of the book is 

 entitled " Phenomena and Theories." The introductory chap- 

 ter discourses upon the introduction of life and the origin of 

 the earliest terrestrial organisms ; and the second chapter takes 

 up the theory of Evolution or Transformism. AYe may skip 



