356 Scieiitific Intelligence. 



vician stromatoporoids in 4 genera ; 1 genus and 9 species or 

 varieties are new. Tlieir study lias proven to be very tinie-con- 

 suniing due to tlie poor preservation of this material in the Ordo- 

 vician. c. s. 



7. Fossil Plants: A text-book for Students of liotany and 

 Geology ; by A. C. Seward. Vol. ii, small 8vo, pp. viii, 624, 

 with frontispiece and ;376 illustrations in text. Cambridge, 1!)10 

 (The University Press). — It is now nearly twelve years since the 

 publication of the introduction to the modern methods of fossil 

 plant study constituted by vol. i of Professor Seward's invaluable 

 work. With its six most instructive i)rcliminary chapters, fol- 

 lowed \>y the consideration of the thallophyta, bryophyta and 

 equisetales, that volume virtually marked a new era in paleobo- 

 tanic texts, and was indeed very soon lollowed by those philosophic 

 "Studies in Fossil Botany" by Scott, by the admirable "Ele- 

 ments de Paleobotanique of Zeiller and by Polonie's " Pflanzen- 

 paleontologie," while the progress of the preceding decennial 

 had been so well recorded in that most usable of manuals, Solras' 

 Fossil Botany. 



Though with each year we looked forward to the appearance 

 of the second volume of Fossil Plants, it was perhaps as much a 

 necessity as " a Fabian policy " to delay its appearance till now ; 

 for progress in Paleobotany has been so rapid in the past twelve 

 years that, as Professor Seward says, he has " decided to take 

 the consequences of having embarked on a too ambitious plan of 

 treatment and to preserve the uniformity of proportion by 

 reserving the seed-bearing plants (with geographic distribution) 

 for a third volume." Meantime one can scarce avoid taking very, 

 seriously the author's promise of "as little delay as possible in 

 its preparation " ; for its field has become a notable one. 



In the volume before us the subjects treated are, then, the 

 Sphenophyllales (continued), Psilotales, Lycopods, Sigillaria, 

 Stigmaria, and the now so much realigned Filicales, exclusive of 

 the seed-bearing section or the Pleridosperms, or "pseudo-ferns." 

 A peculiarly usable feature of the work is the introduction of 

 these major divisions by the illustration and description of sug- 

 gestive types from existing floras. This is a great book, and its 

 perusal clearly shows that we are only beginning to recognize the 

 significance of the fact that in Paleobotany more than in either 

 vertebrate or invertebrate paleontology, we have the immense 

 advantage of ever and anon interpreting outer morphology in 

 the light of full details of histologic structure. 



As re^Wj pertaining to discussion that will more properly fall 

 ■within the scope of Professor Seward's third volume, it may be 

 scarcely fair to single out an error in relation on page 396, where 

 Crossotheca is spoken of as a type of frond, — "always regarded 

 as Marattiaceous until Kidston proved it to be the microsporo- 

 phyll of Lyginodendron." In the first place an adumbration of 

 the fact that much of the fern foliage of the paleozoic must be 

 in some way anomalous occurs in the woik of Slur. Nearly 



