292 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 
to account for the existence of ice during the period of the pro- 
ductive Coal-measures. A part of the vegetation of the coal 
period was allied more or less closely to the modern ferns, but 
these, of very large size are found chiefly in the tropies. Coal 
is, however, found in arctic regions. This fact has been supposed 
to indicate a warm climate during the coal period. There are two 
. equally important elements in all calculations respecting the origin 
of coal. The first is a sufficiently warm atmosphere to secure luxt- 
riant and abundant vegetation ; the second, a climate sufficiently 
cool to prevent such decay of the vegetable matter as would forbid 
any accumulation. There is little or no accumulation of vegetable 
matter in the hot, damp climate of the tropics, the decay counter 
balancing the growth. On the other hand, the peat vegetation 
accumulates in wet bogs in comparatively cold climates. Whether 
there may have been, after the submergence of the Zaleski coal, 
at some point more or less remote, a shore on which ice may have 
itis impossible to say. tt 
_ Sir Charles Lyell in his ‘Students’ Elements of Geovani : 
published in 1871, gives the following paragraph on the rere : 
the coal period: ‘ As to the climate of the coal, the ferns and 
conifere are, perhaps, the two classes of plants which may be 
relied upon as leading to safe conclusions, as the genera are nS oc 
allied to living types. All botanists admit that the abundance” 
ferns implies a moist atmosphere. But the conifer, a ie 
mum in numbers constituting 1-62 part of all the flow 
whereas, in a wide district around the Cape of G nifers 
do not form 1-1600 of the phenogamic flora. Besides pepe 
man ecies of ferns flourish in New Zealand, some O` ia ihi : 
borescent, together with many lycopodiums, so that 2 bs vegett 
country may make a nearer approach to the Carboniferous Yre 
tion than any other now existing on the globe.” a 
The other reports will also commend themselves to § State in 
and meanwhile we trust no expense will be spared by piee ; 
causing the final report to be published and extensively 0" 
2. f j 
Tue Noxious AND BENEFICIAL INseCTS OF Missoun™ pe 
by the time this review appears we shall have a fourth mi eS 
Mr. Riley, a notice of Some of the good things m the P 
ring plants; 
; ope they | 
Insects of the * 
*Third Annual Report on the Noxious, Beneficial and other gro, pp: 18% 
Missouri, ete. By Charles V, Riley, State Entomologist. 1871. 
cuts. Price $1.00, Cae 
