Reviews.— Prof. Dana — On Palceozoic Botany. 181 



fleshy pericarp. On the whole, I am inclined to consider Cardiocar- 

 pon as a Gymnosperm of an extinct type, confined as far as is yet 

 known to the Palaeozoic rocks." (Oarruthers, 1872, Geol. Mag. 

 Vol. IX. p. 56.) 



Vast marshy plains seem to have characterized the period of the 

 formation of the Coal-measures where " grew the clumsy Sigillarids 

 and Calamites and the more graceful Tree-ferns, Lepidodendrids, and 

 Conifers, with an abundant undergrowth of Ferns, and upon the dry 

 slopes near by, forests of Lepidodendrids, Conifers, and Tree-ferns, 

 and the luxuriant growth was prolonged until the creeping centuries 

 had piled up vegetable debris enough for a coal-bed." (op. cit. p. 356.) 



" The Coal-period was a time of unceasing change, — eras of uni- 

 versal verdure alternating with others of wide-spread waters, de- 

 structive of all vegetation and other terrestrial life, except that 

 which covered regions beyond the Coal-measure limits. But yet it 

 was an era in which changes for the most part went forward with so 

 extreme slowness, and with such prevailing quiet, that, if man had 

 been living then, he would not have suspected their progress, unless 

 he had records of some thousands of years past to consult." 



" According to the reading of the records ? it was a time of great 

 forests and jungles, and of magnificent foliage, but of few or incon- 

 spicuous flowers ; of Acrogens and Gymnosperms, with no Angio- 

 sperms ; of marsh-loving Insects, Myriapods, and Scorpions, as well 

 as Crustaceans and Worms, representatives of all the classes of Arti- 

 culates, but not the higher Insects, that live among flowers ; of the 

 last of the Trilobites (and we would add the last also of the gigantic old- 

 world Merostomata the Eurypteridce) ; the passing climax of the 

 Brachiopods and Crinoids ; of Ganoids and Sharks, but no Teliosts or 

 Osseous Fishes, the kinds that make up the greater part of modern 

 tribes ; of Amphibians and some inferior species of true reptiles, but 

 no Birds or Mammals ; and therefore there was no music in the 

 Groves, save that of Insect life and the croaking Batrachian. Thus 

 far had the world progressed by the close of the Carboniferous 

 period." (Dana, op. cit. p. 860.) 



Since we received the copy of Prof. Dana's Geological Manual, the 

 author has sent us the following note in reference to the enlargement 

 of the new edition : 



"While the number of pages is 30 greater than in the old edition, 

 the size of the page is fully one-fifth larger ; so that a page of the new 

 edition contains very nearly a twentieth more matter than one of 

 the old. The new edition, in fact, contains at least one-sixth more 

 matter than the old." 1 



A further perusal of Dana's Manual has tended much to enhance 

 our estimate of the vast and varied amount of geological materials 

 brought together in so admirable and convenient a form for the use 

 of the student. The illustrations, which exceed eleven hundred in 

 number, are most admirably executed. 



1 We are also requested to make the following corrections : 



On page 3, 8 lines from top, for l-200,000th read l-120O,000th. 

 On p. 129, 14 lines from top, for Petremitids read Pentremitids, 

 On p. 344, on Map, for 9 read 8, and for 8 read 9. 



