No. 414.] REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERATURE. 509 
PALEOBOTANY. 
Elements of Paleobotany.' — The somewhat remarkable develop- 
ments in the science of fossil plants which have taken place during 
the last decade receive renewed expression in the issue of an impor- 
tant work from the pen of R. Zeiller, already so well known to 
paleontologists for his extensive and admirable work on the fossil 
flora of France. In his Z/éments de Paléobotanigque M. Zeiller deals 
with fossil plants from the standpoint of the botanist conformably 
to modern views of botanical science. Though not so ambitious a 
work as Seward’s Fossil Plants, the present work follows on similar 
lines with respect to general treatment of the subject, but treats 
of somewhat different types, thereby supplementing the former in 
important respects. It discusses 
I. The mode of preservation of fossil plants. 
2. Classification and nomenclature. 
3. A systematic treatment of the various groups of plants, commencing 
with the Thallophytes. 
The succession of floras and their relation to climatic conditions. 
5. General considerations bearing upon the evolution of plant forms as 
indicated by the evidence of fossil plants. 
*» 
Probably the most striking feature of the book is the recognition 
which it gives to Pontonié’s Cycadofilices, a group of plants now 
definitely recognized as occupying an important and intermediate 
position between the ferns and the cycads — a fact which serves to 
bring into conspicuous relief the important nature of the recent 
developments of paleobotanical science. The work is valuable and 
suggestive, and will find a ready welcome on the part of botanists. 
P E 
Notes. — The material dealt with by David White (/Vineteenth Ann. 
Rept. U. S. Geol. Surv., Pt. IIT) in his report on the “ Fossil Plants 
from the McAlister Coal Field, Indian Territory," furnishes essen- 
tially the first paleobotanical data respecting the Carboniferous of 
the regions southwest of Kansas, and it therefore affords the first 
instance relative to the vertical range and distribution of the North- 
ern Coal Measures within the southwestern portion of the western 
interior basin, supplying an important basis for the correlation of 
l Zeiller, R. Eléments de Paléobotanique. Paris, Carré et Naud, 1900. 8vo, 
417 pp., illustrated. 
