Notes on Recent Literature. 
187 
NOTES ON RECENT LITERATURE. 
“ Ancient Plants : being a simple account of the past vegetation 
of the Earth and of the recent important discoveries made in this 
realm of Nature Study.” By Marie C. Stopes, D.Sc., Ph.D., 
F.L.S. Blackie & Son. 
m-HE presentation of a general account of a subject such as 
■ Paleobotany, which shall be at once useful to students pre¬ 
paring for examination and intelligible to the non-specialist is a 
a task of exceptional difficulty. Dr. Marie C. Stopes tells us in the 
preface that her aim is to present “ the most interesting discoveries 
and general conclusions of recent years,” and to bring together the 
subject as a whole. The book is dedicated to college students, to 
the senior pupils of good schools . . . .”, but especially, to “ all 
those who take an interest in plant evolution, because it forms a 
thread in the web of life whose design they wish to trace.” The 
non-scientific reader will find much in its brightly written pages 
which will assist him to form a fairly adequate idea as to the aims 
of those who study the plant records of the rocks, and as to the 
importance and fascination of the subject. To the student who 
has a general acquaintance with recent plants, the outline sketches 
of extinct types will serve as a stimulus to fill in details from other 
sources. 
In Chapter II, following a brief introduction, the author gives 
a clear account of the commoner methods of preservation of plants 
as fossils. More use might have been made of amber as a con¬ 
venient illustration of preservation by incrustation and petrifaction. 
Chapter III contains a good description of the manner of 
occurrence and probable origin of calcareous nodules in coal 
seams. In selecting as the heading of Chapter IV “ The Seven 
Ages of Plant Life,” Miss Stopes would seem to be influenced by 
an inherited devotion to Shakespeare, rather than by a determi¬ 
nation to adhere strictly to scientific accuracy. The title is 
attractive, but misleading. Chapters V and VI include a brief 
account of plant-anatomy, with special reference to stages in 
evolution, and in illustration of the striking similarity between 
certain extinct and recent types. In these, as in other sections of 
the book, too much is attempted in a small space. To illustrate 
fossil genera differing more or less widely from existing forms, 
