348 



SCIENCE, 



[Vol. V., No. 116. 



whether that group be agnatic, enatic, or 

 cognatic. Such a group does not necessarily 

 dissolve on the death of the ruler, for the next 

 younger man who is the oldest of the group 

 takes his place. The group, therefore, is com- 

 paratively permanent, and there is no inherent 

 necesshvy for its dissolution. It may remain 

 as long as there is a living man to act as ruler. 

 Presbiarchy has widely prevailed : in fact, it 

 seems to be primordial. 



The patriarchy, with its patria potestas, as 

 far as we now know, was confined to the 

 Roman tribes : but the patriarchy without 

 absolutism has been much more widely dis- 

 tributed, and it has probably been associated 

 also to a greater or less extent with presbiarchy, 

 real or fictitious ; so that the latter has fre- 

 quently been divided into patriarchies, they 

 being subordinate groups. 



Maine and the McLennan brothers seem 

 not to recognize presbiarchy ; and Maine, 

 wherever he discovered evidences of it, and 

 also where he discovered evidences of any 

 other form of elder-rule, presented them as 

 proof of the existence of the patriarctry. Had 

 the McLennans recognized elder-rule, they 

 could have made their criticism of Maine much 

 more effective. As it is, they have success- 

 fully attacked Maine's theory by showing that 

 patria potestas has not been widely spread ; 

 in fact, that there is no evidence of its exist- 

 ence, except among the Romans. 



Maine also bases his theoiy of the primordial 

 and universal patriarchy upon his theory of 

 agnation ; and, wherever he discovers a recog- 

 nition of agnation, he holds that it is evidence 

 of the patriarchy with patria potestas. The 

 McLennans show that agnation is not the only 

 kind of kinship recognized in tribal societ} 7 , 

 by arr&ying much evidence of the recognition 

 of enalion ; but the}' themselves fall into the 

 antipodal error of supposing that enation was 

 the only kind of kinship recognized. 



Altogether the patriarchal theory of Maine 

 has been successfully overthrown in the work 

 before us, by a re-examination of the very 

 facts adduced in its support ; and we owe a 

 debt of gratitude to the authors for the thorough 

 way in which they have accomplished their 

 task. If, now, Sir Hemy Maine will on his 

 part as completely overthrow the McLennan 

 theory of exogamy and endogamy, and its con- 

 comitant polyandry, the ground will be well 

 cleared for the development of a sound system 

 of sociology upon the inductive basis estab- 

 lished by Morgan. 



Connected with this theory of the patriarchy 

 is Spencer's theor} 7 of ancestor-worship, by 



which he accounts for the genesis of theism, 

 — a theory which ignores all the facts of savage 

 philosophy, finds an origin for opinions midway 

 in the history of culture, and accounts for later 

 opinions as following in the course of normal 

 development, and for early opinions as degen- 

 eracies. With the final overthrow of the 

 patriarchal theory, the ancestral worship theory 

 has its weak foundation entirely removed. A 

 piece of good destructive criticism here would 

 be opportune. 



Spencer's ghost theory of the origin of a 

 dual existence has long been overthrown by 

 Tylor's grand induction denominated 'Ani- 

 mism.' A good piece of destructive criticism 

 on this point also would be timely. 



J. W. Powell. 



LESQUEREUX'S CRETACEOUS AND 

 TERTIARY FLORA. 



This work is the third, and will undoubtedly 

 be the last, of the series of final reports con- 

 tributed by this author to the publications of 

 the U. S. geological surve}' of the territories 

 in charge of Dr. Hayden, and which together 

 constitute a truly great and enduring monument 

 to the fame of the now venerable paleobotanist. 

 The first of these volumes appeared in 1874, 

 and was devoted to the flora of the Dakota 

 group, the only cretaceous flora then known in 

 the west. The second, a larger work, came 

 out in 1878, and was called the ' Tertiary 

 flora ;' but more than half of it was taken up 

 with species of the Laramie group, by many 

 regarded as cretaceous. The present volume 

 is in the nature of a review of the whole field 

 covered by the two preceding, bringing the 

 matter down to date, and embraces some 

 Pacific-slope miocene localities in addition. 



The first hundred and twenty pages and 

 eighteen plates are devoted to a revision of the 

 flora of the Dakota group, and the description 

 and illustration of thirty-five new species from 

 that formation. At the close of this division 

 of the work, the author introduces an exhaus- 

 tive table of distribution, extending it to em- 

 brace the entire Cenomanian formation, to 

 which he assigns the Dakota group, as well 

 as the middle cretaceous of Greenland. He 

 divides the Cenomanian of Europe into three 

 groups of localities: viz., 1, Moletein, Qued- 

 linburg ; 2, Quadersandstone, Harz, Bohemia ; 



Contributions to the fossil flora of the western territories. 

 Part iii. The cretaceous and tertiary floras. By Leo Les- 

 quereux. Report of the U. S. geological survey of the ter^ 

 ritories. F. V. Hayden, U. S. geologist in charge. Vol. viii. 

 "Washington, Government ,1884. 12 +283 p., 59 pi. 4°. 



