119 



II. NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



Beitrdge zur Flora der Vorwelt. Von August Joseph Corda. 

 Prag.*, 1845. 



This work is a valuable addition to our knowledge of the internal 

 structure of fossil plants. The author's researches appear to have 

 been conducted with great care and labour, and he has been suc- 

 cessful in discovering well-preserved vegetable structure in many- 

 instances where it had not before been looked for, especially in the 

 plants of the coal-formation. Indeed, he affirms that the seemingly- 

 unpromising fragments imbedded in the sandstone and clay iron- 

 stone of that formation are sometimes in a more satisfactory state 

 for microscopical examination than the more showy specimens mi- 

 neralized in agates or opal. 



The work is illustrated by sixty plates, containing very highly- 

 magnified figures of the anatomical structure of the plants described. 

 These magnified representations are indeed on so large a scale, that 

 one might be tempted to suspect some exaggeration, did not the au- 

 thor strongly protest in his Introduction against such a suspicion. 



The tribes of plants of which illustrations are given in the pre- 

 sent work are the following : — 



1. Sagenariacece. 2. SigillariecB. 3. Diploxylece. 4. Cycadece. 

 5. Palmcc. 6. Flabellariacece. 7. Orchidece, 8. Zygophyllece, 9. 

 Protopterides. 10. Phthoropterides. 11. Rhachiopterides. 12. Glei- 

 cheniacece. 13. Schizceacece, 14. Maraitiacece, 15. Diplotegiacece. 

 The ninth, tenth and eleventh of these are merely artificial subdivi- 

 sions of the great family of Ferns, founded on portions of stems and 

 leaf-stalks which have not been found in connexion with the leaves. 



1. The Sagenariacece correspond with the Lepidodendrcce of Un- 

 ger's Synopsis, and include the genus Lepidodendron of Sternberg 

 and Brongniart, together with a few others. The species here de- 

 scribed and figured are four, three of which belong to new genera, 

 namely Lomatofloyos, Leptoxylum and Heterangium. The structure 

 of Lomatojloyos crassicaule, of which most elaborate details are 

 given, agrees pretty closely with that of Liipidodendron Ilarcourlii, 

 as explained by Adolphe Brongniart : the woody axis of the stem 

 consists entirely of scalariform vessels, without medullary rays, und 

 without any tendency to a radiated arrangement ; it encloses a ccn- 



* Contributions to a Flora of the Ancient World, by A. J. Corda. Prague, 1845. 



