3o6 Book Notice. 



behind them, raising the bed of the stream several feet. Over 

 this the water poured in a fierce cascade, scooping out the stream 

 bed, and carrying everything before it. Another stone block 

 was formed, and the process was repeated. Now the storm is 

 past, the water finds its way, in many cases, under the stones 

 that it piled up in its fury. Probably thousands of tons of 

 stone are left in the river bed where the two streams met at 

 Darnholme, and also jvist below Thomasson Foss. This 

 waterfall has been very much shortened, principally by the 

 raising of the water level in the pool at the foot of the fall. 

 In time of flood the salmon will probably be able to get into the 

 higher streams. The river from here to its junction with the 

 Murk Esk has undergone a great amount of alteration. 



Ancient Plants, by Marie C. Stopes, D.Sc, Ph.D., F.L.S. London : 



Blackie. pp. vi. and igS. 4/6 net. 



Any book coming from Dr. Stopes is sure to be interesting, and this one, 

 dealing with a phase of plant life she has advanced in no small degree, will 

 prove both attractive and stimulating. It is written from the point of 

 view of the general reader, and with the hope that it will also prove useful 

 to the college student in ' presenting the most interesting discoveries and 

 general conclusions of recent years.' Its language is often simple, at times 

 very expressive, and even grandiloquent as the writer warms to her sub- 

 ject. Occasionally, we gather that outsiders hardly take palaeobotanists 

 at their own valuation, and here and there is a little unnecessary protesting 

 concerning the supreme importance of the subject, but this we can forgive 

 in an enthusiast. There are nineteen short chapters dealing with such 

 topics as various kinds of fossils, coal, the seven ages of plants (a very 

 arbitrary division), stages in plant evolution, minute structure of fossil 

 plants compared with living ones, and ten chapters dealing with the past 

 histories of plant families. Plant histology cannot be understood by the 

 general reader without much effort. Still the clear and excellent illustra- 

 tions prove a great help. For students' use (and we think these would have 

 been better kept in mind), we are too often met with such expressions as 

 ' they are too complex to describe in detail ' and as these often refer to 

 fructifications, about which the most important discoveries have recently 

 been made, it becomes rather disappointing. This, however, is to some 

 extent compensated for by the series of useful comparative diagrams 

 illustrating the evolution of the seed from the spore. Considering the 

 nature of the subject, we cannot agree with her dictum that Scott's 

 ' Studies ' are ' hard and impossible reading,' for many of the structures 

 she finds too complex to describe, Scott renders perfectly clear, and in 

 language often simpler than some we find in ' Ancient plants.' Errors are 

 not numerous, though at times she is carried into making too sweeping 

 assertions, apparently out of sheer exuberance. On page 78, chapter XIII. 

 should be XII., and in the figures illustrating minute structures, many of 

 the photo-micrographs are labelled ' micro-photos,' and as no indication of 

 magnification is given, a distorted notion will be obtained by the ' general 

 reader,' if he or she refers to a dictionary for its meaning, which we find 

 is not included in the glossary at the end of the book. These, however, 

 are minor points, and a book at once so ably written on the whole, and so 

 well illustrated, cannot fail to secure the object the writer has in view of 

 suggesting ' enough of atmosphere to show the vastness of the landscape 

 spreading out before our eyes back into the past and on into the future.' 



Naturalist, 



