No. 385.] REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERATURE. 79 
ble to that of the existing giant kelps, like Lessonia or Macrocystis. 
Remains of Fungi and Mosses are too scanty and imperfect to throw 
much light upon the geological history of these two groups of plants. 
Space will not permit of more than a reference to the rest of the 
contents of the volume in hand. Of the Pteridophytes, the Equise- 
tineæ are fully and clearly treated, and the volume concludes with an - 
account of the genus Sphenophyllum, which is considered to be the 
type of a class, Sphenophyllales, coordinate with the other phyla 
of the Pteridophytes. A full bibliography and index complete the 
volume. 
The work may be recommended unqualifiedly as a thoroughly 
reliable and clear presentation of a most interesting and important 
subject. It is to be hoped that the second volume may be soon 
before us. ; DoucLas HOUGHTON CAMPBELL. 
Illustrierte Flora von Deutschland. — The eighteenth revised 
edition of Garcke’s German flora is now at hand. This admirable 
work is too well known to need description. The new edition, 
although embodying many minor corrections in keys, plant ranges, 
etc., maintains in all more important matters the same form as the 
edition of 1895. Like this, it is illustrated by some 760 block cuts, 
scattered in the text. ‘These figures, although in some cases a trifle 
stiff and wooden in general appearance, are very clear and accurate 
in detail. The work is more than ordinarily interesting to Americans 
from a sort of parallelism with Dr. Gray’s well-known Manual of 
Botany. Both were first issued in 1848, and have alike, in succes- 
sive editions, received repeated and painstaking revision by their 
authors. Both follow the De Candollean arrangement of families 
and what is now regarded as a conservative nomenclature. Both 
italicize distinctive characters, scatter their specific keys through the 
text, cite authorities and important synonyms, but omit all bibliog- 
raphy. Both have been exceptionally useful books and still enjoy 
wide popularity. 
The German work describes 718 genera and 2614 species of vascu- 
lar plants. Its introductory key, still based upon the classes and 
orders of Linnæus, seems something of an anachronism, but is skill- 
fully managed and certainly lucid. A feature of questionable taste 
is the use of authorities after vernacular family names. Such expres- 
sions as “ Campanulaceen Juss.,” “Compositen Adans.,” and the 
like, are, it is true, not seriously misleading, yet they are, strictly 
speaking, inaccurate and therefore to be aided. BLS 
