536 



SCIENCE. 



[N. 8. Vol. XX. No. 512. 



Equisetacece. When we regard these rapid 

 advances, and truly estimate the influence 

 they bring to bear upon morphological 

 theory, we must surely congratulate our- 

 selves on being devotees to a science which 

 is very actively alive. 



But at the same time the detached cynic 

 may find in the methods of plant morphol- 

 ogists, or still more sometimes in their 

 want of method, food for much critical 

 remark. And if he put his finger upon 

 one mental process which more than an- 

 other has introduced discord, it would, I 

 think, be 'assumption.' It may be that 

 our science is not worse than others in this 

 respect ; but I am very sure that arguments 

 based upon ill-founded assumption have 

 put back the progress of morphology more 

 than anything else in our discussions. Any 

 one can find examples for himself in the 

 literature ; some of us in our own -writings. 

 It remains for us who tread the difficult 

 path of morphological theory to beware 

 lest we neglect those warnings with which 

 its course is so plentifully strewn; for it 

 is just as much the duty of a scientific man 

 to avoid blurring the issues for others by 

 faulty argument, as it is to attempt to 

 make clear to them what he himself believes 

 to have been obscure. 



F. 0. Bower. 



Univeesitt of Glasgow. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

 The Belgian Antarctic Expedition. Resultais 

 du Voyage du S. Y. Belgica en 1897, 1898, 

 1899, Zoologie. Nematodes lihres. Dr. J. 

 G. DE Man. April 15, 1904; 51 pp., 4to, 

 pi. i-xi. Bryozoa, by A. W. Waters. Feb- 

 ruary 15, 1904; 114 pp., 4to, pi. i-ix. 

 The report on the free nematodes considers 

 four fresh-water forms truly Antarctic, and 

 six inarine species collected in the Magellanic 

 region, of which, however, one had been orig- 

 inally described from South Georgia. Three 

 of the Antarctic forms are new, one ' being 

 supposed to belong to a new subgenus {Plec- 



toides) ; the other form, a Dorylaimus, is too 

 ^ young for determination. The other three 

 belong to the genera Mononchus and Plectus. 

 This little group has a special interest in 

 being the first known fluviatile forms from 

 the Antarctic continent. All the species are 

 treated at great length and profusely illus- 

 trated. 



We learn from Water's report that 86 spe- 

 cies of Antarctic bryozoa were collected; on 

 one occasion 55 species were obtained at one 

 haul of the tangles. Eleven others from the 

 extralimital subantarctic waters are also con- 

 sidered. 



Of the 86 species and varieties of Antarctic 

 origin 57 are new, many of which are very 

 closely related to already known northern 

 forms. 



Of the Chilostomata only seven are known 

 from the northern hemisphere, all of which are 

 also known in the fossil state. Three species 

 are cosmopolitan and also Arctic. But little 

 support is given to the ' bipolar ' theory by 

 the Bryozoa considered in this paper. The 

 specimens of Hornera lichenoides, long since 

 reported as brought from the Antarctic by 

 Sir James Eoss, there is much reason to be- 

 lieve did not come from that region, as they 

 agree with Arctic and do not agree with 

 Antarctic specimens of that genus. Ortho- 

 pora, Cellarinella and Systenopora are de- 

 scribed as new genera, all of which are Ant- 

 arctic. A new species of Alcyonidium and 

 seven new Gyclostomata, with seven others 

 previously known, and one indeterminate, 

 complete the enumeration. 



W. H. Dall. 



Smithsonian Institution. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 



In the Botanical Gazette, for September, 

 M. A. Chrysler has written upon ' The develop- 

 ment of the central cylinder of Araeese and 

 Liliacese,' developing in these groups the re- 

 cent stelar theories and reaching the general ■ 

 phylogenetic conclusion that monocotyledons 

 are derived from dicotyledonous ancestors. — 

 D. S. Johnson has given an account of ' The 

 development and relationships of Monoclea,' 

 a Jamaican liverwort. — W. 0. Coker has writ- 



