866 
maps which further illustrate the subject of 
distribution. The present work will be of 
considerable value to those interested in the 
economic products of Australia and to botan- 
ical travelers in that region. 
The Eusporangiate, the Comparative Mor- 
phology of the Ophioglossacee and Marat- 
tiacee. By Dovuctas HoucHTon CaMPBELL, 
Carnegie Institution of Washington, Au- 
gust, 1911. 
This superb memoir deals with the repre- 
sentatives of two important orders of ferns, 
the Ophioglossales and the Marattiales, which 
on account of their remote and often tropical 
distribution are imperfectly known. The il- 
lustrations are admirable scientifically and are 
often extremely artistic. Thirteen full quarto 
page heliotypes representing the habit of the 
rarer species are of great beauty. While the 
author deals adequately with those features of 
the morphology of the Eusporangiates, which 
have been accessible to other writers, he nat- 
urally devotes special attention to the question 
of the structure and development of the 
gametophytes and the young sporophyte, since 
it is precisely in regard to these matters that 
our present knowledge is least perfect. With 
entirely admirable zeal, Professor Campbell 
has made it his business to visit those remote 
parts of our earth which are at the same time 
most interesting botanically and least salubri- 
ous and accessible. 
An account as complete as is permitted by 
the abundant material rendered available by 
the author’s extensive travels is given of the 
gametophytes of the three Ophioglossaceous 
genera, Ophioglossum, Botrychium and Hel- 
minthostachys. This is supplemented by de- 
scriptions of the development of the embryo 
and the later stages of the young sporophyte. 
It is clear that Professor Campbell inclines to 
the opinion that the leaf is the primitive fern 
organ and for him the genus Ophioglossum is 
likewise the primitive genus of the Ophio- 
glossaceous family. There appears to be here 
much room for difference of opinion, since the 
whole tendency of investigation in recent 
years, covering both the living and fossil rep- 
SCIENCE 
[N.S. Vou. XXXV. No. 909 
resentatives of the lower vascular plants, 
whether cryptogamic or seed-bearing, has been 
to show that the course of evolution has been 
from the more complex to the simple and not 
as has been generally assumed in the past vice 
versa. Unfortunately in the case of the 
Ophioglossacew no fossil evidence is available 
to check up the results obtained from the study 
of the morphology of the living forms. In 
accordance with his point of view, the author 
apparently regards the stem of the Ophioglos- 
sacez as a complex of fused leaf bases, a con- 
ception supported in his opinion by the method 
of development of the vascular strands. He 
apparently regards the fertile segment of the 
leaf too, the so-called sporangiophore, as an 
organ suz generis, although Professor Bower, 
the most vigorous defender of this point of 
view, has recently practically abandoned it. 
The possibility of the sporangiophore repre- 
senting specialized pinne of the leaf, which 
has recently been convincingly urged by Pro- 
fessor Chrysler, is not entertained. 
The account of the Marattiales given by the 
author is particularly full and original and 
does full justice to the admirable opportunities 
of travel and collection which he has enjoyed. 
Of particular interest is the account of the 
gametophyte, sexual organs and embryonic 
development of the monotypic genus Kaul- 
fussia, by reason of its marked resemblance to 
the fossil forms referred to the Marattiales. 
A feature of this second division of the 
memoir is the attention given to the develop- 
ment of the fibrovascular system. The author 
takes the position that the origin of the first 
tracheids as separate groups, which only later 
become merged in the general fibrovascular 
system of the stem, indicates the origin of the 
axis from originally separate parts. This 
doctrine carried to its logical conclusion would 
apparently lead to somewhat striking ab- 
surdities. 
The third division of the memoir is devoted 
to the discussion of the origin and relation- 
ship of the two fern families described in the 
earlier pages. The author assumes the cor- 
rectness of the antithetic hypothesis of the 
origin of the alternation of generations, char- 
