Notes and Comments. 59 
show a close resemblance to modern species characteristic of 
temperate countries. The fact that some plants are able to 
flourish under sharply contrasted conditions and that closely 
allied species occur in very different climates renders it very 
difficult to draw conclusions as to climatic conditions from 
data derived from a comparison of extinct and recent plants. 
While admitting the danger of basing opinions on extinct types, 
it is impossible to neglect the cumulative evidence presented 
by the great number of Wealden species that have their nearest 
living representatives in tropical and sub-tropical countries.’ 
ABSENCE OF FLOWERING PLANTS. 
‘In considering the vegetation as a whole we must not lose 
sight of a significant fact, namely, the absence from the great 
majority of Wealden floras of any representatives of the 
Flowering plants. We cannot form any adequate conception 
of the effect produced on the general facies of a flora by the 
introduction of this efficient class that later in tne Cretaceous 
epoch had progressed far toward assuming its present dominant 
position. It may be that not climatic changes alone, but to 
some extent changes in the balance of power brought about 
by the progress of plant evotution resulted in the ousting of 
the numerous Cycadean genera and many other Jurassic- 
Wealden plants from the northern hemisphere. It 1s at least 
certain that in the Wealden period the type of vegetation was 
very similar to that which flourished over the greater part of 
the world during the whole of the Jurassic era, and it is equally 
certain that very shortly after the close of the Wealden period 
the vegetation of the world experienced a remarkable trans- 
formation. As we ascend the Cretaceous system the older types 
disappear, giving place to the vigorous and successful Flowering 
plants, the advent of which marks the first stage in the 
formation of modern floras.’ 
EAST RIDING ANTIQUARIES. 
Volume XX. of the Transactions of the East Riding Anti- 
quarian Society,* contains an elaborately illustrated paper 
on ‘The Arms of Hull,’ and another on ‘ Excavations at 
Peaseholm, Scarborough,’ by Mr. T. Sheppard; the Rev. 
A. R. Gill has a lengthy paper on ‘ York Boy Bishops,’ and 
the President, Colonel Philip Saltmarshe, gives * Notes on 
Thorganby, East Yorks.’ The Editor, Mr. Sheppard, also 
has a paper on ‘East Yorkshire Antiquities,” in which he 
illustrates the various inscribed antiquities found in this area. 
There is a list of the Society’s excursions, 1893-1914, and an 
index. 
——————————— eee ____________.._| el 
x. + 70 pp., cloth, 8vo. A. Brown & Sons. 
1915 Feb, 1. 
