

704 NATURE [| AuGUST 26, 1915 
ANTARCTIC FOSSIL PLANTS. and less than six weeks before the end. The 
Cae aad “AF Sh Se A pce ka “beautifully traced leaves in layers”? found in 
ROF. SEWARD’S Memoir is the first of the  ‘“‘ veritable coal-seams” in the Beacon Sandstone, 
British Museum Reports dealing with the 
natural history results of Capt. Scott’s second 
Antarctic expedition. The work is finely illus- 
trated, and provided with excellent maps. The 
specimens described are of unequalled interest 
among fossil plants, from their occurrence so near 
the Pole, and from the tragic circumstances of their 
discovery. 
The report begins with a few notes on palzo- 
botanical records from previous expeditions. 
Though of considerable interest as demonstrating 
the former existence of vegetation on the Antarctic 
Continent, these earlier records were of little 

Fic. 1.—The medial moraine on the Priestiey Glacier. 
botanical value, none of the specimens admit- 
ting definite determination. The really im- 
portant Antarctic specimens of fossil plants are 
among the fruits of Capt. Scott’s second expedi- 
tion. 
The petrified remains of a tree, named by the 
author Antarcticoxylon priestleyi, were discovered 
by the northern party on February 1, 1912, on 
the moraine of the Priestley Glacier, south of lati- 
tude 74° S. Still more important discoveries were 
made by the Polar party at Mount Buckley in 
latitude 85° S., on February 8, 1912 (see our 
illustration). This was on their sad return journey 
1 ** Antarctic Fossil Plants.”” By A. C. Seward, F.R.S. British Museum 
(Natural History). British Antarctic (Texxa Nova) Expedition, 1910. 
Natural History Report. Geology, vol. i, No. 1, pp. 1-49+vili plates. 
(London, 1914.) Price 6s. 
NO. 2391, VOL. 95] 
From ‘‘ Antarctic Fossil Plant-,” by A. C. Seward, F.R.S. 
are found to belong to the well-known species 
Glossopteris indica, which is thus shown to occur 
in abundance only about 300 miles from the South 
Pole. The fact that there is some evidence of 
drifting does not materially affect the interest of 
this astonishing discovery. ~The nature of the 
plant is beyond doubt, as shown by the excellent 
photographs, and the finding of so well-char- 
acterised a member of the Gondwana Flora was 
peculiarly fortunate. The stems and scale-leaves 
of Glossopteris also appear to be present. 
The fossil wood, Antarcticoxylon priestleyi, 
from the Priestley Glacier, is described in full de- 
tail, with the aid 
om of numerous 
| microphoto- 
graphs; an in- 
| teresting point is 
| the presence of 
, well- marked 
aaa annual rings. 
Sefer, The occurrence 
, of concentric 
bands of cellular 
tissue in the 
wood is a pecu- 
liar feature, pos- 
sibly to be ex- 
plained as a re- 
action to wound- 
ing during life. 
The wood shows 
affinity with that 
of Cordaites, but 
is regarded as 
the type of a 
new genus. 
The author 

might perhaps 
have compared 
his specimens 
with Mesopitys 
tchihatcheffi, a 
Permian plant 
from the Altai, 
fully described by 
Zalessky in 1911; the two stems -have a good 
deal in common, notably in the presence of 
annual rings, the single leaf-traces and the 
structure of the primary wood. 
Other, less well preserved, specimens of 
Antarctic wood are all regarded as_ probably 
Gymnospermous. 
A curious discovery is that of a body 
(Pityosporites antarcticus) apparently representing 
a winged pollen-grain; it was found in the matrix 
of a partially decayed stem of Antarcticoxylon. 
Winged pollen-grains occur both in the Firs and 
the Podocarpinee; on geographical grounds the 
latter group appears the more probable, but the 
agreement with the pollen of the Abietineee seems 
to be closer. 

