516 Notices of Memoirs — A Paleocene Bat. 



II. — A Paleocene Bat. By W. D. Matthew. Bull. Amer. Mus. 

 Nat. Hist., vol. xxxvii, pp. 569-71, September, 1917. 



BATS with well-developed wings are already known from the 

 Upper Eocene of Europe. A highly specialized skull of a bat 

 has now been found in the still older Basal Eocene (Wasatch 

 formation) of Colorado, U.S.A. According to Dr. Matthew, this 

 specimen represents a new genus and species of the family Phyllo- 

 stomatidae, which still exists in tropical America. It has an 

 unusually slender snout and a comparatively small canine tooth. 



III. — Huesos anormales de Llama y de Condor. By Catetano 

 Martinoli. Physis (Buenos Aires), vol. iii, pp. 69-74, 1917. 



PALAEONTOLOGISTS have long been interested in rare cases of 

 three-toed horses, which recall the condition of the foot in the 

 Miocene and Pliocene Equidse. Martinoli now describes and figures 

 an analogous case of Polydactyly in a llama (Auchenia lama). As 

 shown by his figure, the abnormal metacarpus consists of four well- 

 defined bones fused together, and all probably bore phalanges. 



IV. — The Albertella Fauna located in the Middle Cambrian of 

 British Columbia and Alberta. By Lancaster D. Burling. 

 American Journ. Science, vol. xlii, pp. 469-72, 1916. 

 rT!EE Albertella fauna has hitherto been regarded as Lower 

 J_ Cambrian, but certain new facts of stratigraphy are mentioned 

 in this paper to prove its Middle Cambrian age. Text-figures are 

 given of Albertella bosworthi,. Walcott (British Columbia), and 

 A. helena, Walcott (Montana and British Columbia). 



IR. IE "VIEWS. 



I. — Fossil Plants ; a Text-book for Students of Botany and 

 Geology. By A. C. Seward, M.A., F.R.S. Yol. Ill: Pterido- 

 spermse, Cycadofilices, Cordaitales, Cycadophyta. 8vo ; pp. xviii, 

 656, with frontispiece and 253 text-figures. Cambridge University 

 Press, 1917. Price 18*. net. 



PROFESSOR SEWARD'S book is a continuation of his systematic 

 account of fossil plants, taken up from the end of vol. ii, which 

 appeared in 1910. The author was so rash as to make certain 

 statements in his preface to the previous volume as to the scope and 

 time of appearance of the remaining portion of his work. Hence the 

 explanation in the preface of vol. iii that the promised account of 

 the geographical distribution of plants at different stages in the 

 history of the earth has been crowded out of vol. iii and the following 

 vol. iv, now in the press, and must therefore form the subject of 

 a separate book. This is all to the good from the students' point of 

 view ; the subject of geographical distribution in time, if treated in 

 the full and careful manner which we expect from Professor Seward, 

 may well form a separate volume. We trust that the leisure which 

 one associates with the mastership of a college in an ancient 



