Our Book Shelf

Abstract

IN a preliminary note by the author, we are informed that this dissertation is an extract from a more extended essay on the vegetation of Central Europe, which present circumstances prevent him from publishing in full. The title cited above is really that of the first chapter of the work only. A second deals with the spread of the “thermophytes” in Central Europe since the “fourth ice-period”; and a third with the division of Central Europe into floral districts; followed by some seventy pages of explanatory remarks on the points raised in the preceding chapters. Unfortunately for those who would wish to consult this book, it has neither index nor headings of any kind. There is no attempt whatever to classify the facts and data; no map, no summary, no digest, no general conclusions; indeed, no help at all for the reader desirous of knowing what the writer has arrived at, or is leading up to. He begins with the assumption, that only very few of the plants which now inhabit Europe were already here in Miocene times, and that a large majority of the present vegetable inhabitants consist of immigrants and such as have originated within the territory since the beginning of the Pliocene period. The homes of the migrated species he would seek in Arctic America, but chiefly in Asia; and a very small number he considers have migrated from North Africa. In illustration of migrations the author gives full details of the present distribution of a small selection of plants; but only in words, so that it is a study to trace the areas. Having thus called attention to this work, we must leave it to the reader with leisure to follow the writer through his four ice-periods, and the present distribution of the leading elements of the flora of Central Europe; and, we may add, that he will find much interesting matter.

Grundzüge einer Entwickelungsgeschichte der Pflanzenwelt Mittcleuropas seit dem Ausgang der Tertiärzeit.

Von Dr. August Schulz. (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1894. 8vo. pp. 206.) (Outlines of a History of the Development of the Flora of Central Europe since the close of the Tertiary Period.)