376 Notices of Books and Papers. 
to more important points, — for instance, to the auxanometer, — an 
instrument rather scantily discussed. A similar criticism may be 
made as to the introduction of structural details. The student might 
have been referred to special treatises for such subjects as periclinal 
and anticlinal lines, or the transverse section of the dicotyledonous 
stem, and the incomplete discussion of these points might have been 
omitted. With a little care in this direction, the author might easily 
effect improvements in what, as it stands, is an excellent book. 
F. D. 
EINLEITUNG TN DIE PALAOPHYTOLOGXE VOM 
BQTANXSCHEN STANDPUNKT AXIS. Bearbeitet 
von H. GItAEEN ZU SOLMS-LAXJBACH. Leipzig, 
Felix, 1887. 
It has been known for some years past that Graf zu Solms- 
Laubach was engaged in the preparation of a general work on 
Palaobotany, and its appearance has been looked for with no little 
interest, especially in Britain, where Fossil Botany has found so 
many of its most zealous and successful students. General treatises 
hitherto published in this branch of science have given prominence 
either to the geological or to the systematic aspects of the subject, 
and it has been left to Graf zu Solms-Laubach to approach it in 
this book from a distinctly new standpoint, that of the morphological 
botanist. We do not require to say that he is peculiarly w r ell fitted 
for the task he has imposed upon himself; the result is a book 
worthy of his authorship. 
The difficulties which most botanists have found in acquiring 
information on the subject of Palaophytology may be traced to two 
primary sources ; in the first place, too many of the workers who have 
dealt with the fragmentary remains of an old vegetation have not 
been fitted by any previous botanical training for the work, and con- 
sequently their descriptions and identifications are alike untrustworthy; 
in the second place, solitary minute fragments from isolated districts 
are often the only foundation for important statements or hypotheses, 
which, from the evidence supplied, it is hazardous either to accept 
or refute. Hence the only plan for obtaining a satisfactory basis 
of knowledge is an examination of all the type specimens in their 
several localities, and this is manifestly out of the question for the 
majority of botanists. Now, this is just what Graf zu Solms-Laubach 
