276 Revieivs — Dr. Kitchin's Jurassic Fauna of Cutch. 



Sweden, in which the characteristic foliage is borne on the same 

 stem with Williamsonia-W^Q fructifications. The habit, however, 

 as shown in Nathorst's restoration, with a slender, repeatedly forked 

 stem, is totally different from anything known among the Bennettitese 

 or other Cycadales. 



The genus Gtenis is one of those which has oscillated, in palaeo- 

 botanical works, between the Ferns and the Cycads. The author 

 has succeeded in observing the microscopic structure of the epidermis, 

 and has proved that the supposed sori, held to indicate Filicinean 

 affinities, are not really of a reproductive nature, but represent mere 

 elevations of the epidermal cell- walls. 



The account of the Ginkgoales, now solely represented by the 

 Maidenhair-tree, itself almost extinct in a wild state, is particularly 

 interesting. The evidence for the great antiquity of this group, 

 once more critically examined by the author, appears to be quite 

 conclusive. The remarkable seed-bearing fructification, named 

 Beania gracilis by Carruthers, and usually regarded as a Cycadean 

 strobilus, is considered by Mr. Seward to belong more probably to 

 the Ginkgoaceas. In the course of his argument on this question, the 

 author makes the striking statement that " we have no satisfactory 

 instance of a female Cycadean flower of Mesozoic age which can be 

 reasonably connected with a plant bearing Cycadean foliage" (p. 274). 

 In other words he considers that all the evidence indicates the 

 Bennettitese, and not the true Cycadacese, as the family to which 

 Mesozoic Cycadales belonged, while other authorities have always 

 admitted the co-existence of the two groups in Mesozoic ages. 



Several Coniferse are described, the most striking, perhaps, being 

 Pagiophyllum Williamsoni, with fairly well preserved cones in situ. 

 With the exception of some Araucarian cone-scales, none of the 

 Coniferous remains can be referred with any certainty to a special 

 family. 



In his concluding remarks the author lays stress on the close 

 agreement between the European Jurassic flora and the Gondwana 

 flora of India and Australia. " In Jurassic times there was no 

 doubt a much greater uniformity in the vegetation of the world 

 than exists at the present day" (p. 306). Attention is also called 

 to the great similarity between the Lower Oolitic and the much later 

 Wealden flora, a similarity which in a few cases even appears to 

 amount to specific identity. 



Mr. Seward's new volume will be recognized as one of the most 

 sound and valuable contributions to PalEeobotanical Taxonomy. 



D. H. S. 



II. — Jurassic Fauna of Cutch : The Brachiopoda. By F. L. 

 KiTOHiN, M.A., Ph.D. (Memoirs of the Geological Survey of 

 India, 1900, ser. ix, vol. iii, pt. 1, pis. i-xv, pp. 1-87.) 



THIS is a painstaking and very critical work, which deserves 

 every commendation. The author has fully realized the 

 responsibility of the task, and he strikes the right note in his 



