336 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 193. 



' Handbuch der Palseontologie ' is a large vol- 

 ume and constitutes a manual of fossil plants. 

 It was begun by Schimper in 1879 and com- 

 pleted by Schenk in 1890. It treats the subject 

 systematically and, therefore, is only adapted 

 to the use of the advanced student or special 

 investigator. Schenk's subsequent abridgment 

 of this, entitled : 'Die fossilen Pflanzenreste,' 

 Breslau, 1888, so far from popularizing it, con- 

 denses it to such a degree that it is of little use 

 even to the latter class. 



The above-named seven works, to which 

 might, perhaps, be added the ' Sketch of Paleo- 

 botany ' in the Fifth Annual Report of the U. 

 S. Geological Survey, Washington, 1885, and 

 the article on fossil plants in Johnson's Univer- 

 sal Cyclopaedia (Vol. VI., pp. 639-645), consti- 

 tute about the only attempts heretofore made 

 to present a general view of the science of 

 paleobotany without introducing descriptions 

 of species. Potoni^'s ' Lehrbuch der Pflanzen- 

 palajontologie mit besonderer Riicksicht auf die 

 Bediirfnisse des Geologen,' begun in 1897, has 

 now reached the third fascicle, but it bids fair 

 to be even more technical than any of those 

 already mentioned. 



We have now before us the first volume of 

 another comprehensive work on the general 

 subject of fossil plants, written by one who is 

 thoroughly equipped for his task, especially 

 from the botanical side, and the first question 

 that arises is as to whether it responds in any 

 more satisfactory way than the rest to the real 

 demand in this line, viz., the demand already 

 mentioned for popular scientific treatment of 

 the whole subject of extinct plant life in its re- 

 lation to living plants and to geologic time. To 

 this question the answer must be decidedly in 

 the negative. The work fills no ' long-felt 

 want,' and must be regarded simply as another 

 added to the considerable number of technical 

 treatises designed for the advanced student 

 only. It is remarkable how, in the production 

 of such works, the general educational require- 

 ments are ignored and only those of special re- 

 search considered. The leading motive with 

 each author seems to be to see how much better 

 he can treat the more advanced and recondite 

 aspects of the subject than his predecessors have 

 done, and thus we have a multitude of very 



similar works, each making a slight advance 

 upon the preceding one. 



Dismissing, then, at the outset all idea of a 

 new departure or a fresh and novel presenta- 

 tion of the science of fossil plants, such as 

 should be calculated greatly to multiply the 

 number of persons who interest themselves in 

 them, let us apply ourselves to the task of ex- 

 amining the work as it is. A criticism of a 

 book because it is not something else can be 

 justified in a case like the present, where there 

 is sore need of a form of treatment which the 

 author is fully competent to furnish and proves 

 that he has leisure to do by making a book 

 for which there is no special call. Still, for 

 English readers, and especially for the very 

 small and constantly diminishing number of 

 students who cannot readily handle the French 

 and German languages, the present work will 

 be grateful and far better than a translation. 

 Moreover, I do not hesitate to say that, aside 

 from its being fully up to date, it is decidedly 

 the best of the works thus far produced. Of 

 course, this ought to be the case, not only because 

 it is the latest, whereby all previous contributions 

 could be laid under tribute and their defects 

 profited by, but also because it has as its author 

 a man with an exceptional equipment for his 

 task, especially as not being too great a spe- 

 cialist, i. e., not having narrowed down to any 

 one of the main lines, as is so often the case, 

 which gives such an uneven and one-sided char- 

 acter to most works of the kind. 



The work is divided into two parts, the first 

 of which is called ' General ' and occupies 115 

 pages, while the second, or 'Systematic,' part 

 includes the remainder of the volume and may 

 extend through the whole of the second vol- 

 ume. It is, therefore, essentially a systematic 

 work. 



The ' General ' part consists of a ' Historical 

 Sketch' of 11 pages; a chapter on the 'Rela- 

 tion of Paleobotany to Botany and Geology,' 

 10 Images ; one on ' Geological History, ' 32 

 pages ; one on ' The Preservation of Plants as 

 Fossils,' 39 pages; one on 'Difficulties and 

 Sources of Error in the Determination of Fossil 

 Plants,' 17 pages ; and one on ' Nomenclature,' 6 

 pages. As a book for advanced students only, 

 the historical sketch is merely formal and as- 



