386 
SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 
Studies in Fossil Botany. By DUNKINFIELD 
Henry Scort, Ph.D., etc. London, Adam 
and Charles Black, The Macmillan Company. 
1900. Pp. 533. Illustrated. Price, $2.75. 
The gathering force represented in the paleon- 
tological researches of the last quarter of a cen- 
tury is now finding expression in publications 
which not only summarize the results reached 
by individual investigators, but which coordi- 
nate them and thereby give them a positive 
value as contributions to our knowledge of the 
character and succession of plant life in past 
times. The closing years of the nineteenth 
century witnessed the issue of three important 
works by Potonié, Seward and Zeiller. The 
initial work of the twentieth century by Scott 
may well take rank with them, and it offers 
the most hopeful indication of what we may 
reasonably expect from the paleobotanical work 
of the future. All these works have the com- 
mon characteristic that they approach the sub- 
ject from the standpoint of modern phylogeny, 
and we may, no doubt, safely conclude that 
they represent the completion of that ‘ har- 
mony between the botany of extinct and exist- 
ing forms’ which botanists have always re- 
garded as most essential, but the realization of 
which has been long deferred. They place the 
whole subject of paleobotanical research upon 
an entirely new basis, and this branch of bo 
tanical inquiry is now emerging from a condi- 
tion which may well be compared with the 
transition from the Old to the New School of 
Botany in 1860. 
In presenting his ‘Studies in Fossil Botany,’ 
Dr. Scott does not wish us to infer that he is 
attempting to produce a manual or even a text- 
book; but his contribution is founded upon a 
course of lectures delivered in 1896, which he 
has now brought down to date, and the title 
clearly indicates that he avoids the particular 
field already occupied by Potonié, Seward and 
Zeiller, whose works follow parallel though 
dissimilar lines of treatment. The purpose of 
the author is expressed in the statement that 
the work is designed to present results which 
appear to be of fundamental importance, and 
he therefore confines his attention to a few of 
the leading groups of plants within which the 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Vou. XIII. No. 323. 
greatest advances of recent years have been 
made, and where most tangible results have 
been secured. Other publications give greater 
detail respecting species, taxonomy and geolog- 
ical relations, but the present work acquires 
special importance and value because of the 
close insight into relationship disclosed by a de- 
tailed study of comparatively few types on the 
bases of ample material and remarkably well- 
preserved specimens. His presentation is a 
statement of facts rather than an exposition of 
views. We may not only sympathize with him 
in the hope that the paleontological record will 
no longer be ignored by students of the evolu- 
tion of plants, but also express the conviction 
that in the future botanists will not ignore such 
evidence, simply because they can not afford to 
do so. 
The material used is primarily that which 
Williamson gathered during his lifetime, to- 
gether with such additional material as has 
come to the hands of Dr. Scott and others in 
more recent years. The author adopts Solms- 
Laubach’s principle of ‘the completion of the 
natural system’ as his point of departure. He 
therefore discards all problematical forms and 
confines his attention solely to the relatively 
few types which contribute well-ascertained 
data. All discussions center in phylogeny, and 
the work stands as one of the best expositions 
of the importance which attaches to the study 
of fossil plants as a necessary means of com- 
pleting such data. 
After a brief discussion of the relations of 
plants in geological time and their methods of 
preservation, the author immediately proceeds 
to a consideration of the Pteridophyta and the 
lower Seed Plants, and in a very lucid and 
convincing manner places before the reader 
the essential facts in the structure, reproduc- 
tion and relationships of those plants in which 
the paleontological progress of the past twenty 
years has centered. In the main, the illustra- 
tions are taken from Williamson’s works, and 
a very striking and pleasing feature appears in 
a skilfully executed restoration of Lyginoden- 
dron Oldhamianum which is introduced as a 
frontispiece. 
In the present condition of our knowledge, a 
classification of the Calamariez is difficult in 
