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THE FERN BULLETIN 



view of shortening the terms of all but efficient offi- 

 cials, the proposal to extend the terms in the Fern So- 

 ciety is astonishing. Are the officers of the Society 

 aware that the president of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science serves but one year? 

 Then why should those who only think they are ad- 

 vancing science serve longer? 



BOOK NEWS. 



The question of the evolution of plants has always 

 been one of particular interest to the fern student, 

 since fossil ferns and fern-like plants are so intimately 

 associated with it, and this interest deepens with every 

 new discovery. A generation ago, what was written 

 upon the ancestry of modern plants was largely 

 theory or guess work ; now, thanks to more abundant 

 material and improved methods of study the student 

 of fossil plants speaks with more certainty. Recently 

 many species have been found so well preserved that 

 thin sections under the microscope reveal the cell 

 structure, and all the details of spores, prothallia, sex 

 organs, vascular bundles and the like. It is even pos- 

 sible now to state positively whether many of the 

 species that ceased to live millions of years ago, were 

 isosporous like Lycopodium and the ferns generally or 

 wbether they were heterosporous like Sclaginclla. 

 All this information has made possible a recent book 

 on "The Evolution of Plants" by D. H. Scott, one of 

 the most eminent of present day students. In this, the 

 author takes up the fossil record, of the plants states 

 the problem of their origin, considers the evidence, 

 traces the origin of the prominent groups in the light 

 of the evidence, and finally renders a verdict that 

 seems quite in agreement with the facts. The present 

 view is, in brief, that the angiosperms have arisen 



