358 Scientific Intelligence. 



that before its work is done, there will have been witnessed rela- 

 tively as great overturnings of beliefs, classifications and systems 

 as, for instance, Astronomy has already seen ? g. r. w. 



6. Etudes sur les Vegetaux Fossiles du Trieu de Leval 

 (Hainaut) ; par Pierre Marty. Mem Musee Roy. d'Hist. Nat. 

 de Belgique, T. V., Brusselles, 1907, 52 pp. and 9 pis. — The chief 

 botanic feature of this upper Cretaceous fiorule is the fine series 

 of Dryophyllum specimens, and the nearest comparison amongst 

 existing florae is found in tropical American regions. 



G. R. W. 



7. The Plant remains in the Scottish Peat Jlosses. Part III 

 The Scottish Highlands and the Shetland Islands / by Francis 

 J. Lewis. Tran. Roy. Soc. of Edinburgh, Vol. xlvi, Part 1 ( No. 

 2), Nov. 1907, pp. 33-70, with four plates. — In this admirably 

 clear exposition it is shown that all the Scottish peat mosses show 

 (l) a definite basal arctic bed in the south of Scotland and the 

 Shetland Islands, succeeded by ( 2 ) the lower forests of birch, 

 hazel and alder, containing temperate plants, which are followed 

 by (3) a second arctic plant bed overlain in all except the Heb- 

 rides, Cape Wrath and the Shetlands, by ( 4 ) an upper forest 

 covered by several feet of peat-bog plants. The two arctic beds 

 descend to within 150 feet of sea-level, whilst the lowest forest 

 rises to 1500, and the upper to 3500 feet, the present lower 

 level of arctic-alpine vegetation in Britain being taken as 2000 

 feet. G. r. w. 



8. The Structure and Origin of the Cycadaceo? / by W. C. 

 Worsdeix. Annals of Botany, vol. xx, No. lxxviii, April, 1906, 

 pp. 129-159. — In this clear and. important resume of evidence 

 mainly derived from vascular anatomy, essentially the same con- 

 clusions of pteridosperm origin of the Cycads result, as appear 

 from the more detailed study of fructification in the Cycadeoi- 

 dese. Though of course the facts afforded by a study of stem 

 structures are so far rather more connected than those yielded by 

 the study of fructification, for which latter category of examina- 

 tion there is less available comparative material. 



Mr. Worsdell devotes considerable space to a careful explana- 

 tion of his view that the solid type of monostele (Heterangium) 

 does not, according to Dr. Scott's supposition, give origin to the lax 

 monostele of ly ginodendron, composed of from 5 to 8 or 9 col- 

 lateral bundles, but that on the contrary both these forms are 

 derived from a Medullosan polystele by non-development of the 

 pith side of the circular series of steles. Certainly the recent 

 and decidedly suggestive discovery by Matte of a Medullosan 

 stage in the seedling axis of Encejyhcdartos Barteri appears to 

 tell in favor of Worsdell's view. Nevertheless, we are inclined 

 to regard both his and Dr. Scott's idea as morphologically feasi- 

 ble methods, both of which have doubtless been followed in the 

 evolution of stem structures in the series leading from pterido- 

 sperms into cycadophytes. This is but another example of the 

 present hopefully rapid accumulation of evidence for modes of 

 plant evolution. 



