CURRENT LIFERATORE 
BOOK REVIEWS 
Phylogeny of plants 
The first volume of Lotsy’s huge work, dealing with the thallophytes, was 
published in 1907 and was noticed in this journal. The second volume has now 
appeared? and includes the ‘‘archegoniates.” The speed at which such large 
volumes have been organized for publication, and the extensive range of literature 
traversed in compiling the facts and the illustrations, are both impressive. But 
no one man can deal authoritatively with the whole plant kingdom, and the wisdom 
of so comprehensive a plan by one author is questionable. If it be undertaken, 
the usefulness of the work depends upon his appreciation of the relative values 
of investigations, his general perspective, and his organizing power. Lorsy has 
Stood this test as well as could be expected, and although there are abun- 
dant grounds for criticism, the book is on the whole a fairly logical and copiously 
illustrated digest of the current literature. It will serve as a useful encyclopaedia 
of general information in reference to the present knowledge of bryophytes, 
Pteridophytes, and gymnosperms, and the current speculations regarding them. 
Of course the whole thesis is the evolution of the plant kingdom. 
The chief criticism must fall undoubtedly on the sometimes radical changes 
Proposed in classification on debatable grounds, and on the author’s conceptions 
of phylogeny, which others may be disposed to consider erratic. Thus, in the 
bryophy tes, Anthoceros is accorded the status of the most primitive liverwort, on 
the ground that it is nearest the algae in having in each cell only one chloroplast 
and this furnished with a pyrenoid. Then, having discussed Riccia as the liver- 
wort with the simplest sporophyte and Sphaerocarpus as ‘‘the simplest known 
liverwort,” Lorsy predicates a ‘‘Sphaeroriccia” as the hypothetic Urjorm, from 
which Anthocerotales, Marchantiales, and ““Metzgeriales” separately sprang, 
the latter spraying out into the Jungermanniales (Acrogynae). 
he portion of the volume dealing with pteridophytes (318 pp.) and the 
“polyciliate” gymnosperms (80 pp.) gives opportunity to add to the older data 
an unusually large volume of recent work, and Lotsy does not hesitate to formu 
late here also his own theories, even in connection with groups in which he has 
done no investigation. The following statements may be taken as illustrations: 
ana 
* Bor. Gazetre 432421. 1907. 
* Lorsy, J. P., Vortrige iiber botanische Stammesgeschichte, gehalten an der 
Reichsuniversitat zu Leiden. Ein Lehrbuch der Pflanzensystematik. Zweiter Band: 
Pah Zoidogamia. Imp. 8vo. pp. 902. figs. 553. Jena: Gustav Fischer. 1909. 
M 20. 
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