448 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
ways in which fossil plants have been preserved, and the other on the 
classification and nomenclature of fossil plants, a department of pale- 
ontology which is in a very unsatisfactory state. The systematic 
view is followed by an exhibition of the chief characteristics of the 
successive floras of the earth, and a consideration of the evidence 
But the earlier forms very rarely throw any light on the origin of 
generic types, though he thinks Daneopsis of the Trias may be the 
parent of Danea of the Lias. In the case of allied species he sees 
was not gradual and imperceptible, but so sudden and rapid that we 
are unable to detect it. The s a. hers which forms the bulk 
of the volume, is carefully done. In the descriptions the author 
does not deal with atsthine lower ok pa but these are slaty 
described and ell illustrated. 
Dr. Scott’s won consists of a series of studies of the vascular 
cryptogams and gymnosperms, and incorporates: much of the 
author’s original oak. It will be valuable to all students who 
direct their attention to fossil plants. The work is clearly and 
concisely written, — is fully illustrated with drawings of external 
forms and with minute histological details which have been made 
possible for text- Donic by the recently discovered ue of repro- 
duction. It would not be possible to reproduce a portion of the 
work which would give a fair notion of its ues ; it is a great gain 
to botanists to have in our language so admirable a presentation of 
the important facts —— with the structure and organization 
of the palxozoic pla 
cott needed with an inquiry into the relation. of the 
subj ects a his study to the theory of the genetic evolution of the 
vegetable kingdom. While accepting, like M. Zeiller, the theory, 
he presents some of the many difficulties with which the story 
of past life on the globe abounds. In speaking of the late appear- 
ance of Angiosperms, he says that the facts at present known 
ne be ye pie the Bryophytes, but Dr. Scott says emphaticall 
that this theory receives no trace of support from fossil evidence, 
whatever may be the verdict of comparative morphology, and he 
concludes that the history of these two groups of plants may fairly 
be regarded as favouring the view that the course of evolution of 
the Vascular Cryptogams was altogether independent of that of the 
Bryon ytes. It is obvious that a vivid imagination must be at the 
command of any one who endeavours to discover, from the known 
pear of fossil botany, the genetic history of the vegetable cag 
But, leaving these speculative regions, as Dr. Scott calls them, w 
