196 TJie American Geologist. March, i89'j 
and revisions, while covcrinp the whole vegetable kingdom and all 
post-ArchK.'an time. Yet, in the surprisingly rapid evolution of pale- 
obotany, however short-lived the reign of each new-comer, such works 
are more than useful; they are a necessity. 
After reading and comparing Seward's "Fossil Plants," the first 
volume of which has been printed in the Cambridge Natural Science 
^lanuals, it is not too much lo say that it is by all odds the best gen- 
eral work, viewed from all standpoints, that has yet appeared, besides 
which it is quite up to date. Unlike Schimper, Schenk, and Renault, 
who wrote for the systematic paleobotanist, or Solms-Laubach, whose 
discussions and histological interpretations, confined' for the most part 
to Paleozoic plant types, are of special value only to the botanist or 
the paleobotanist, Dr. Seward, has written at once for both geolo- 
gists and botanists. He has endeavored to impart to his fellow - 
botanists a broad view of time, an appreciation of the nature of vege-' 
table remains, their modes of fossilization and occurrence, and the 
difficulties attending their identification, while making them acquainted 
with the various extinct types and their assumed or ascertained rela- 
tions to the living plant world. At the same time he is careful to 
explain to geologists the relation of the chain of fossil plant life to 
living types, while discussing the organization and probable nature 
cf the classes of organisms met in the various formations. His method 
is to give lucid, well-illustrated descriptions, somewhat in detail, of the 
principal types, with such brief references to and illustrations of others 
as may guide the students in further inquiry on the one hand, while 
noting the principal forms of each geological period on the other. 
In his discussion of the relations of fossil to living types Seward 
is less philosophical and far less speculative than Saporta, who wrote 
chiefly for botanists. In fact, while he shows thorough familiarity 
with the literature of his subject and a wide range of reading in cognate 
fields, he appears possibly unnecessarily cautious. He is not only 
more conservative than most authors as to the genetic relations of the 
types, but he even appears to have less confidence than most of his 
colleagues in the value of fossil plants either in stratigraphic correla- 
tion or as tests of climate. 
Of the four hundred and fifty pages in this, the first volume, the 
first hundred are occupied with preliminary discussions of elements 
for the geologist and the botanist. The remainder of the volume in- 
cludes the treatment of the lower orders of Cryptogams, followed by 
the Equisetales and the Sphenophyllales, the latter being thus recog- 
nized as a distinct class. The systematic arrangement, on the lines of 
the system adopted by Engler and Prantl. is probably the best that has 
ever been presented. 
The work contains descriptions of several new species and of one new 
genus, Sphenophyllostachys, for the "cones" of Sphenophyllum. The 
great preponderance of the types discussed in the present volume are 
Paleozoic, as is natural since only the lowest classes are treated. 
