May 5, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



695 



Ammonites by Yabe necessarily proves the 

 Cretaceous age of the plants may, or may not, 

 be true, but it can hardly be accepted as very 

 definite information in itself, since Ammonites 

 had their origin in the Triassic. Even if they 

 are located in the Cretaceous or " Upper Cre- 

 taceous " it is not sufficiently close to permit 

 of comparison with horizons of definite strati- 

 graphic positions in the Cretaceous of other 

 parts of the world. But this study avowedly 

 was made, not from the standpoint of geolog- 

 ical paleobotany, but from the professedly 

 higher plane of histology, and as such it must 

 be judged. 



Those paleobotanists who, although per- 

 haps not entirely without knowledge or ap- 

 preciation of the value of structure, have made 

 widest use of the impressions of plants, have 

 had held before them the dictum that structure 

 is the only road that leads to permanent ac- 

 complishment — a sort of Nirvana, as it were, 

 which few could hope to attain. It was there- 

 fore with particular pleasure that we turned 

 to the present paper in the hope that we should 

 find an exposition of paleobotany founded on 

 the solid basis of internal structure. The re- 

 viewer confesses to a feeling of disappoint- 

 ment. 



Of the eighteen new genera and species, 

 which range from fungi to angiosperms, it ap- 

 pears that hardly any is of absolutely definite 

 position and affinity. Thus, of the fungus 

 {Pterosphceria) our authors say, " the lack of 

 characteristic spore-bearing fructifications 

 makes its exact location impossible." Of the 

 two forms described as ferns, the first 

 (Schizceopteris) is thought to belong to the 

 Schizseacese, but its affinity is uncertain, while 

 the other (Fasciostelopteris) is balanced be- 

 tween the Cyatheacese, Marattiacese and Diok- 

 soniacese, and the conclusion is reached it 

 " may therefore for the present be provision- 

 ally included in the DicksoniaceEe." Nipono- 

 phyllum cordaitiforme is a leaf, and here now 

 is the opportunity to see what can be done 

 with internal structure as compared with an 

 impression. After meandering through the 

 better part of five quarto pages in seeking 

 affinities balanced between Araucarinese, 



Podocarpinese, various genera of cycads, as 

 well as Gordaiies, we have the following: 

 " Was the plant to which our leaf belonged a 

 primitive type of cycad, or perchance a be- 

 lated, small-leaved Cordaiies surviving in this 

 island of the orient, just as the truly archaic 

 Oinhgo survived to the present geological 

 epoch?" Since Cordaites had its maximum 

 development in the Carboniferous and did not, 

 so far as we definitely know, survive beyond 

 the close of the Paleozoic, this discovery is of 

 interest — if true! Their new species of Ce- 

 droxylon might belong, they state, either to 

 this genus or to Cupressinoxylon, while the 

 " new " coniferous genera Yezonia and Grypto- 

 meriopsis have recently been reviewed at 

 length by Professor Jeffrey.' The Anglo- 

 Japanese authors state of their Yezonia : " It 

 is impossible to find any family among gymno- 

 sperms with which we can satisfactorily in- 

 clude this plant," but Jeffrey shows conclu- 

 sively that it is the same as Brachyphyllum 

 from the Cretaceous of Staten Island, adding 

 " if all the points of agreement between the 

 description of the supposed new genus Ye- 

 zonia . . . and the account of the anatomy and 

 habit of Brachyphyllum, given in the present 

 article and in the large memoir of Dr. Hollick 

 and the present author were italicized, it 

 would be necessary to italicize the whole de- 

 scription " ! Their Crypiomeriopsis is shown 

 by Jefl^rey to be merely the old Geinitzia 

 (Sequoia) Reicheniachi, that has been known 

 from impressions since 1842. 



The several angiosperms described are, if 

 possible, in an even more unsatisfactory state 

 as regards definiteness, and the authors ac- 

 knowledge that " from the anatomy of stem 

 and rootlets alone it is a matter of extreme 

 difficulty and some uncertainty to determine 

 the affinity of an angiosperm." Thus of their 

 Jugloxylon they " lay no particular stress on 

 the systematic position that the name sug- 

 gests." Populocaulis agrees with Populus 

 " more closely than with any other," while 

 Fagoxylon has " general affinities with the 

 whole Cupuliferse," which is certainly suffi- 

 cient leeway. The only angiospermic fructifi- 



"■ Annals of Botany, Vol. 24, 1910, p. 767. 



