1915] CURRENT LITERATURE age 
of organization. While they are the oldest angiosperms whose anatomical 
features are known, they are in no way primitive or pro-angiospermic. The 
forms, of which three received preliminary treatment in 1912,? are named 
Cantia arborescens, Woburnia porosa, Sabulia Scottit, Hythia Elgari, and 
Aptiana radiata. No attempt is made to indicate their family relationships, 
of Pinostrobus, Cedrostrobus, and A bietites, anatomical material representing a 
Sequoia (Taxodieae), Protopiceoxylon (1 sp.), Pityoxylon (3 spp.), and Cedroxy- 
lon (2 spp.) in the Abietineae; four species of Cupressinoxylon in the Cupres- 
sineae; Taxoxylon (1 sp.) and Podocarpoxylon (4 spp.) in the Taxaceae. No 
remains of Araucariaceae are recognized. This list of conifers is of especial 
interest to American botanists in cineca with JEFFREY’s rather sweeping 
conclusions from his studies of material from the Upper Cretaceous, from which 
Stopes dissents, apparently on the basis of rather satisfactory evidence. 
The present contribution also shows that BucKLAND’s genus Cycadeoidea 
offers anatomical differences from the American forms usually described under 
that name. A new cycadophyte trunk is made the type of a new genus, 
Colymbetes. It i is found in the lower part of the Lower Greensand and may 
The climate of the Aptian is considered to have been less warm than that of 
the preceding Wealden. 
The book on the whole is an exceedingly valuable contribution to our 
knowledge of fossil plants, particularly to that important part of the Lower 
Cretaceous represented in Britain by the Lower Greensand.—Epwarp W. 
BERRY 
Flora of New Zealand 
Two quarto volumes illustrating the New Zealand flora have appeared 
under the editorship of T. F. CHEESEMAN, curator of the Auckland Museum, 
with the assistance of W. B. HEMSLEY. The 250 plates are exceptionally good, 
having been drawn by Miss Matitpa SmitH of the Kew Herbarium, whose 
work in connection with the Botanical Magazine and Icones Plantarum has 
long been known. Accompanying each plate there is an account of the dis- 
covery and occurrence of the plant, as well as items of general interest. Since 
the technical descriptions are published in the Manual of the New Zealand 
flora (1906) they are not repeated in the J/lustrations. 
The problem of selecting approximately 265 plants to illustrate adequately 
such a flora as that of New Zealand can be appreciated. The main features 
of the flora, however, have been presented, and no important genus or group 
2 Stopes, M. Cc. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. London. B 203:75-100. pis. 6-8. 1912. 
3 CHEESEMAN, T. F., Illustrations of the New Zealand flora. 2 vols. . pls. 
250. Published ‘indore the authority of the government of New Zealand. Wa, 
Igt4. 
