57 
NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
Fossil Plants as Tests of pred reas the Sedgwick Prize rae SO 
the year 1892. By A. C. Sewarp, M. A., Lon 
. Clay & Sons. tox rechie 6. xii. 151. Price Sa 
In this Essay Mr. Seward has undertaken the examination of 
a large and important question, and if his conclusions are less 
definite than could be wished, it is due rather to the state of 
is part he 
. . m W. i 
sidered the subject. This will explain to the reader why the 
author has indulged so largely in quotation, and why, independent 
esa though not entirely absent, is not a prominent feature of 
e essay. 
In a somewhat lengthy historical sketch, Mr. Seward traces the 
growth of such theories or opinions as have been formulated with 
ratures, with —- reference to Arctic vegetation. We then 
to what we ard as one of the most important chapters i . a 
whole essay, a that on ‘‘ the influence of external conditions upon 
pa ssible ways, we ought to know to what extent it is possible 
o infer climatic conditions from morphological and histological 
tail Unfortunately, however, in spite of a at has been 
done in the way of distinguishing the floras of different climates 
in these respects, we are still far from such definite and constant 
relations between structure and climate as will enable us to 
pass with confidence from one to the other. The facts as they 
i 1 y sho 
stand are fairly well summarised by the author, but the Ww 
most clearly that much experimental rese e required 
before we can use plant-structure as a guide toclimate. In dealing 
with this part of his pan eh Mr. Seward takes up one or two posi- 
tions which we think will hardly be accepted by modern botanists. 
a cause, and to take a view of the function of cork not held by 
plant See generally. A few sentences further on, refe- 
ce is made to the woody plants of the tropics, and we read that 
“ there, the wood is not a safeguard against the influence of cold, 
but serves to give the plants that firmness which they require to 
enable them to support their branches. In a tropical climate, cork 
must be looked upon, not as a screen from cold (italics ours), but as 
