Reviews — Dr. F. Pelourde — Fossil Cryptogams. 229 



good, scientific reason for association with given families and genera, 

 and to wliich, nevertheless, names indicative of sucli affinities have 

 been given ", and most of the fungi might well have been black-listed 

 in this way. 



The Introduction contains a short account of Cretaceous plant- 

 bearing deposits in various parts of the world, with a useful table 

 giving approximate correlations of the different beds. 



III. — Paleontologie Vegetale : Cktptogames Cellulaiees et 

 Cryptogames Vasctjlaikes. By F. Pelouede. pp. 360, with 

 80 text-figures. Paris: 0. Doin et fils, 1914. 5 fr. London: 

 Dulau & Co. 



THIS is the first volume to appear in the palseontogical section 

 of a new Encyclopedic Scientifique. The aim of the series, 

 which is to comprise about a thousand volumes, is to provide a 

 critical summary of the present state of scientific knowledge in all its 

 branches. There are to be two more volumes on palseobotany, one 

 dealing with gymnosperms and the other with angiosperms and 

 general conclusions, and these will in some respects be more 

 interesting than the first, for they will deal with less familiar ground. 

 We already have several excellent textbooks of fossil botany, and it 

 might be thought that there was little room for the present 

 compilation. It will, however, prove extremely useful to students, 

 for it is of a handy size, and will easily slip into the pocket, and the 

 facts are on the whole well chosen and concisely arranged. A 

 marvellous amount of information has been compressed into a small 

 space, and the account of the stem structure of SigiUaria, for 

 example, is particularly clear, as also is the section dealing with the 

 ferns. It is a pity that many of the illustrations, especially the 

 reproductions of photographs, are so poor. 



In matters of detail a few criticisms may be made. Thus in the 

 geological table the Silurian system is divided into Cambrian, 

 Ordovician, and Gothlandian, each being apparently equivalent to 

 each of tlie six subdivisions of the Devonian, which would be rather 

 misleading to the non-geological reader. Lepidodendron saalfeldense 

 and other petrified plants from Saalfeld, Thuringia, are undoubtedly 

 of Lower Carboniferous and not Devonian age (p. 118) and the genus 

 2Iegalopteris was erroneously described by Dawson as Devonian 

 (p. 224). In view of our ignorance as to the limits of the Pterido- 

 spernige, where fronds alone are concerned, it is a rather sweeping 

 assertion that the immense majority of Pecopterids belonged to the 

 Marattiales, while many of the supposed Marattiaceous sporangia may 

 well be microsporangia of Pteridosperms. There is very little known 

 of fossil thallophytes and bryophytes, and in Dr. Pelourde's necessarily 

 short account such a doubtful specimen as Matthew's supposed 

 Palaeozoic lichen might well have been omitted. 



The bibliography calls for some comment. The paging is usually 

 and dates occasionally omitted, and such a reference as " Lesquereux. 

 Geol, of Penn'a, II " is quite inadequate. Several references given 

 in the text do not appear in the bibliogTaphy. One of Williamson's 



