SWRRENT LITERATURE: 
BOOK REVIEWS. 
Elements of paleobotany.' 
THE great needs of recent years in paleobotany have been a summary 
of the scattered materials and the delimitation of well-founded data from 
those which are more or less uncertain. A great stride forward has been taken 
along these lines and as a result we are ina position to speak more categori- 
cally as to plant fossils. The first part of Professor Seward's work appeared 
some time ago and has been reviewed in these pages.? Almost simultaneously 
three valuable works have recently appeared, one in English by Professor 
Scott,3 one in German by Potonié, and the one which is the subject of this 
review.4 The standpoint of the three works is somewhat different, Scott 
taking more the standpoint of the morphologist, Potonié of the stratigrapher, 
while Zeiller combines the botanical and geological standpoints, though giv- 
ing more emphasis to the botanical side. More than any book that has yet 
appeared, this is a book to be used with impunity by general readers and ele- 
mentary students. The first chapter treats of the various methods by which 
plant fossils have been preserved, then follows a chapter on classification and 
nomenclature. The body of the book, of course, is made up of descriptions 
of the various fossil forms treated in order. The cuts are simple but clear 
and good, and the descriptions are doubtless the shortest and clearest that 
are found anywhere. 
The conservatism of the author is shown at many points, and the differ- 
ence between established and hypothetical data is clearly brought out. Asan 
illustration of this, Zeiller constantly distinguishes between forms based on 
leaves and forms based on reproductive organs, as in the ferns. There are 
interesting discussions of the Sphenophylleze and the Cycadofilices, though 
the author does not go so far as some in erecting these forms into great 
groups by themselves. 
At the close of the book are two chapters of extreme interest. bee 
chapter on the succession of floras and climates is wonderfully graphic, and it 
is doubtful if a better summary of the known facts was ever written, cer- 
tainly not in a shorter compass. The author theorizes but little from the 
* This review also appears in the Journal of Geology. 
* Bot. Gaz. 26:59. 1808. 3 Bot. Gaz. 30: 352. 1900. 
4 ZEILLER, R.: Eléments de Paléobotanique. 8vo. pp. 421, with 210 illustrations, 
Paris: Georges Carré et C. Naud. 1900. 
416 . [ DECEMBER 
