NA TURE 



I^May 24. 1906 



in some of the earlier monographs on American 

 fossil floras. Under the head of Triassic floras an 

 account is given of the results of an expedition into 

 Arizona in 1901, which seems to have been more 

 successful in discovering fossil vertebrates than the 

 remains of vegetation. Reference is made to the 

 "inexhaustible quantity of silicified wood," some 

 specimens of which are included in the genus Arau- 

 carites, a type widely distributed in Mesozoic strata 

 in many parts of the world. By far the most im- 

 portant part of the report is that by Mr. Fontaine, 

 which deals with the rich Jurassic flora of Oregon. 

 An inspection of the photographs and drawings re- 

 veals the interesting but not unexpected fact that the 

 general facies of the vegetation exhibits a striking 

 agreement with that which has been described from 

 the Oolite rocks of East Yorkshire, Siberia, and other 

 Old-world localities. A few species occur which appear 

 to be identical with Wealden plants, while others are 

 reminiscent of the older Rhtetic floras. We welcome 

 this exceedinglv valuable addition to palreobotanical 

 literature, but it is unfortunate that the author has 



Fig. 2.— Unexpanded Frond of Cytaiit'lla jttopiensis, Ward, showing 

 the rachis with two rows of young pinna; and a mass of ramental 

 scales. (From "Status of the Mesozoic Floras of the United 

 States.") 



not exercised more self-restraint in his use of recent 

 generic names in cases where there is no proof of 

 close relationship between the Jurassic and existing 

 plants. Fragments of fern fronds are designated species 

 of Dicksonia and Thyrsopteris on wholly insufficient 

 grounds. So long as palseobotanists continue the 

 practice of labelling fossil species with the names 

 of recent genera merely because of superficial re- 

 semhlances presented by vegetative organs, their lists 

 of species cannot be accepted as trustworthy con- 

 tributions towards a fuller knowledge of the plant- 

 distribution of former ages. Ferns and Cycads are 

 well represented, and the abundance and variety of 

 leaves referred to the genus Ginkgo — that striking 

 embodiment of the " past in the present " — con- 

 stitutes a notable feature of the Oregon flora (Fig. i). 

 The volume also contains an account of Lower Cre- 

 taceous floras, together with much information on 

 the plants of the older Potomac formation, and de- 

 scriptions of additional specimens of silicified Cvcad- 

 ean stems from the Jurassic rocks of Wyoming and 



NO. 1908, VOL. 74] 



the Potomac beds of Maryland. Mr. Wieland gives 

 a particularly interesting figure of a young frond of 

 a species of Cycadella in which the rachis is traversed 

 by a U-shaped vascular band bearing a much closer 

 resemblance to the meristele of a fern petiole than to 

 the conducting strands in the rachis of a Cycad 

 (Fig. 2). The notes which Mr. Wieland has already 

 contributed on the morphology of Mesozoic Cycads 

 have raised a keen desire for further information, and 

 embolden us, who wait with envy and impatience, 

 to urge him to publish with all speed an instalment 

 of his promised monograph. 



By the publication of these volumes Mr. Lester 

 Ward has laid his fellow-workers in paleeobotany 

 under a further obligation. Although there are 

 various matters of detail which we should venture to 

 criticise if space permitted, there can be no doubt as 

 to the value of this latest contribution from the veteran 

 author and editor. A. C. Seward. 



RECREATIONS OF A NATURALIST.' 

 'pHE " naturalist " on the present occasion is Mr. 

 *■ J. E. Harting, from whose pen we have 

 welcomed during the past forty years {eheu ! fugaces) 

 many volumes on many aspects of sport and natural 

 history. ."Xmong his recreations are outings on the 

 moor, the hill, and into the quiet byways of the 



-A Kingfisher ho 



ng. Frorr 



i of a Naturalist." 



country, with gun or rifle (in their proper season), 

 or with neither with equal enjoyment to him, and, as 

 frequently as fortune favoured, with what it is easy 

 to see he perhaps loves best of all, " a cast of hawks." 

 Another form of " recreation " has been — metaphori- 

 cally speaking — " finding a hare in the library and 

 hunting it through the preserves of ancient authors 

 until the hunt had a happy termination, or the literary 

 hare escaped to give sport another day." 



No doubt the writing of the essays that describe 

 these recreations formed a supplementary one, not 

 improbablv combined with " business " as an enhance- 

 ment to the diversion ; for most of the forty essays 

 in the present volume have previously appeared else- 

 where, chieflv in the columns of The Field. Mr. 

 Harting's library hunts are fewer in number and 

 less engaging than those pursued by him out of doors. 

 Of these one here and there might, perhaps, have 

 been omitted, as somewhat belated, such as the ac- 

 count of " Swan-upping," in which the information 

 is eleven vears old, while the " Horse and its His- 

 torians " is a review of a work published in 1888, 



1 " Recreations of a Naturalis 

 of a " Handbook of British Birds 

 433. (London : T. Fisher Unwin 



