354 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [APRIL 
qualified adherence to the views expressed in recent years in England, as to the 
affinity of the Psilotales with this phylum. The genus Psilophyton, established 
by the late Sir Witt1am Dawson of McGill University, for forms from the 
Devonian of eastern Canada and of Scotland supposed to be allied to the living 
Psilotum, is critically examined and rejected as being based on insufficient 
evidence. 
The Lycopodiales are considered in 250 well-illustrated pages. Beginning 
with the superficial and anatomical characters of the living representatives 
of the group, the author, in common with all paleobotanists of standing, 
rejects the idea that the genus J/soetes has filicinean rather than lycopodineous 
affinities. This suggestion, first made by an English plant physiologist, seems 
now to be finally disposed of. The fossil Lycopodiales are discussed under the 
convenient captions of Isoetaceae and Pleuromeia, herbaceous fossil Lycopo- 
diales, and arborescent Lycopodiales, a special chapter being added on those 
remains which the author frankly designates seed-bearing Lycopodiales. 
The Filicales or fernlike Pteridophyta, together with a number of appar- 
ently allied forms, concerning which it is yet uncertain whether they are true 
ferns or merely fernlike seedplants, occupy the remaining and larger part of 
the volume. The treatment of the fossil Filicales begins with a comprehensive 
anatomical and systematical account of their still living allies. The anatomical 
treatment, as might be expected, is characterized by a decided “insularity, 
the views of GWyNNE-VAUGHAN, BoopLE, and other English anatomists being 
unhesitatingly adopted. The chapters on fossil ferns contain such a well- 
digested wealth of material that it is quite impossible to summarize them or 
even indicate their tendency in this necessarily brief review. It is enough to 
say that they constitute a particularly valuable part of the present volume and 
represent a region of the fossil field where the author is peculiarly at home. 
If the work of which the volume under consideration constitutes such an 
important fraction is completed, as is devoutly to be desired, it will be the most 
complete and thoroughly modern work on the subject, and will serve to replace 
the now somewhat antiquated botanical part of ZirTEL’s well-known Hand- 
buch, compiled by ScuimpER, SCHENK, Kraus, and others. It is lightened and 
vitalized by the comparison of external and internal features of the various 
fossils treated, with the similar forms still living. By this method the reader, 
whether he be botanical or geological in his interests, acquires a vivid picture 
of the evolutionary sequence of plants in the history of our world.—E. C. 
JEFFREY. 
MINOR NOTICES 
Bulletin du Jardin botanique de Buitenzorg: is the title resumed by 
the Botanical Gardens of Buitenzorg to take place of the well-known serial 
“Bulletin du Département de l’agriculture aux Indes néerlandaises.”’ The 
5 Bulletin du Jardin botanique de Buitenzorg. Deuxiéme série. No. I, pp. 29, 
pls. 4, August 1911. No. IT, pp. 29, October ror 
