38 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



Progressus Bei Botanic®. Herausgegeben von der Association Inter- 

 nationale des Botanistes ; redigiert von Dr. J. P. Lotsy in 

 Leiden. Bd. i., Heft 1. 8vo, pp. 317. Jena: Fischer. 



1906 (dated 1907). 



The Association Internationale des Botanistes and its inde- 

 fatigable general secretary, Dr. Lotsy, are to be congratulated on 

 the appearance of the first part of their new publication — Progress 

 of Botany. It is now some years since the Association took over 



the Botanische Centralblatt, to make of it a resume of current 



botanical publications ; this has served and still serves a useful 

 purpose in giving brief abstracts of single books and papers. The 

 new work supplements the former, in giving a general account of 

 work on specific lines over a longer period. If succeeding parts 

 are equal in value to the first, the success of the work should be 

 assured. Part i. contains contributions from four botanists. The 

 veteran Professor Strasburger opens with an account (in German) 

 of work done on the ontogeny of the cell since 1875. His paper 

 fills one hundred and thirty-eight pages, and is illustrated with 

 excellent figures from various sources, many from his own works, 

 others from the works of botanists who have studied in his labora- 

 tory or gained inspiration from his writings. A great deal of 

 matter is compressed into this comparatively short account, and 

 further help is given by numerous references to literature. Those 

 who have not made cytology a special study have in Professor 

 Strasburger's account the opportunity of appreciating the present 

 position of this recent development. 



Dr. Scott's contribution (in English), "The present position of 

 Palaeozoic Botany," does for fossil botany what Professor Stras- 

 burger's paper does for cytology. And here again there is no need 

 to emphasize the special fitness of the author for his task. Carrying 

 on the work started by Williamson, Dr. Scott has, by his own 

 effort and the efforts of younger workers whom he has gathered 

 round him, brought palaeozoic botany to such a position of strength 

 and importance as probably Williamson never imagined. His lucid 

 sketch of our knowledge of palaeozoic plants and their affiuities, as 

 affected by recent discoveries, fills eighty pages, and is admirably 

 illustrated by thirty- seven figures, including the large double plate 

 of the now familiar restoration of Lyyinodendron Oldhamium. Mr* 

 Arber's classified bibliography and literature on palaeozoic fossil 

 plants, including some of the more important memoirs published 

 between 1870 and 1905, forms a useful appendix. 



Lastly, there is the contribution in French by Prof. Charles 

 Flahault on the progress of geographical botany since 1884, its 

 present position, and its problems. Prof. Flahault's ecological 

 work is well known, and the ecological aspect holds an important 

 place in his eminently readable account of the position and pro- 

 spects of the study of plant distribution, which fills more than 

 seventy pages. 



Succeeding parts will be issued at intervals of about four 

 months, and each annual volume will contain about forty sheets. 

 The price to members of the Association will be 13 marks a volume, 



