174 Reviews — Professor- Zittel — A Century of Geology. 



former existence of a southern continent whose flora was for the 

 most part distinct from that of the same age in Europe and North 

 America. 



In the Newcastle beds of New South Wales all the typical 

 members of the flora occur without any admixture of northern 

 types (e.g. Lepidodendron and Sigillaria), as has been recorded 

 from similar beds in South Africa and South America. The flora 

 of the Newcastle rocks is interesting botanically both on account 

 of the wide distribution of the chief members, which show points of 

 identity and unity in type with those of the Lower Gondwana of 

 India and the Permian of Russia, and also from the morphological 

 characters presented by many of the plants themselves. The 

 collection which forms the subject of these remarks is in the 

 Geological Museum, Cambridge, and is noteworthy as being one of 

 the earliest (1839-44) formed of fossil plants from the continent 

 of Australia. 



le IE "V" IIS ^W S- 



I. — History of Geology and Paleontology to the End of the 

 Nineteenth Century. By Professor Karl Alfred von Zittel. 

 Translated by Maria M. Ogilvie-Gordon, D.Sc, Ph.D. 8vo ; 

 pp. 13, 562. (London : Walter Scott, 1901. Price 6s.) 



f PHOSE who are not familiar with the German language will be 

 L grateful to Mrs. Ogilvie-Gordon for this translation of von 

 Zittel's comprehensive and most interesting History of Geology, 

 which was published two years ago. In the present work the text 

 of the original has been curtailed by the omission of a chapter on 

 Topographical Geology, and in a few places the subject-matter has 

 ■been amplified — the changes being made with the author's approval. 

 Geology is rightly regarded as a modern science, for prior to 

 the days of Hutton and William Smith there were no established 

 principles for the interpretation of the facts. Nevertheless, we 

 know that from the earliest days of which records are preserved, 

 curiosity and interest were manifested in the rocks and stones that 

 form the solid earth ; and, while there were many shrewd guesses 

 about former extensions of the sea and other physical changes, the 

 observations were disconnected and the hypotheses for the most 

 part were fanciful. Aristotle and Seneca in the earlier times ; 

 Leonardo da Vinci, George Bauer (Agricola), and Conrad Gesner 

 prior to the seventeenth century, are among those whose views 

 command most respect and admiration : but every philosopher who 

 dealt with the origin or history of the earth appears to be mentioned 

 by von Zittel. If we marvel at the erudition which has enabled 

 the author to deal with these old writers and to point out so clearly 

 the chief part which each has taken in the advancement of sound 

 knowledge, we marvel still more when we come to later times with 

 its multitude of workers and of books and papers, and find the same 

 exhaustive treatment of the subject, with references necessarily brief, 



