PalÆobotany for Everyman

Abstract

THIS book is an attempt, and a very successful attempt, to convey to the general reader an idea of the vegetation of the earth in ages long past and the indications it may give of the climates of those times. From a study of their fossil remains so many details are now known about extinct plants that it is no easy task to give a convincing description of what the vegetation was like without becoming involved in highly technical descriptions of many individual plants. The author has shown admirable discrimination in his choice of examples, and gives a clear picture of the kinds of plants which dominated the vegetation at different periods in the past. He has skilfully steered a compromise course between the Scylla of technical jargon and the Charybdis of terminological inexactitude, and the book is written in a very readable and racy style. Ancient Plants and the World they Lived In By Assoc. Prof. Henry N. Andrews Jr. Pp. ix + 279. (Ithaca, N.Y.: Comstock Publishing Co., Inc.; London: Constable and Co., Ltd., 1947.) 25s. net.