CURRENT LITERATURE 
MINOR NOTICES 
Submerged forests.—People invariably are fascinated by evidences of 
former forests below present sea-levels, as indicated by the appearance at low 
tide of stumps in situ. That these “Noah’s woods” are of large scientific 
interest is well brought out in an interesting little booklet by CLEMENT REID, 
forming one of the useful series of “Cambridge Manuals of Science and Litera- 
ture.”* Rep speaks in detail of the various submerged forests of the English 
fewer species. Among the species absent are the more southern types that 
have come into England since the ice age; at the same ae the glacial relicts 
have disappeared. It is concluded that the lowest of these forests date back 
about sooo years, and that there has been no essential change of sea-level in 
the last 3500 years. During the period of the life of these forests the climate 
was much like that of the present, and the land was 60-90 feet higher than it 
is today. 
In connection with Rem’s book on submerged forests, attention may be 
called to a short paper by OszorN, dealing with a submerged forest on the coast 
of Wales.2—H. C. Cow Les. 
Plant evolution—CAMPBELL’ has presented an interesting popular ac- 
count of plant evolution for the “American Nature Series.’’ Following a 
brief consideration of the factors in evolution, the different plant groups are 
considered, from the bacteria and blue-green algae through the angiosperms, 
the object here being to set forth the chief characters of each group in the scale 
of ascent. The book closes with four chapters having the following titles: 
environment and adaptation, the problems of plant distribution, the human 
factor in evolution, and the origin of species. Since most books of this char- 
acter deal with animals rather than with plants, this volume of CAMPBELL’S 
is especially welcome.—H. C. Cow Les. 
* Rem, CLEMENT, sarees forests. pp. 129. figs. 4 and frontispiece. Cam- 
bridge Tnkvensisy Press. 1913 
2 OsBorn, T. G. B., A note on the submerged forest at Llanaber, Barmouth. 
pp- to. figs. 2. pls. 2. Reprint from Mem. Proc. Manchester Lit. Phil. Soc. 56: 1912- 
3 CAMPBELL, D. H., Plant life and evolution. 8vo. pp. iv+360. Jigs. 22. New 
York: Henry Holt & Co. 1911. $1.60. 
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