FOSSIL PLANTS. 43 



fossils in cases where conclusions have been drawn from 

 the general facies of a flora, and not from a few frag- 

 mentary relics of individual forms. 



Recent monographs on the geologic floras of special 

 districts, especially of Carboniferous or Permo-Carboni- 

 ferous age, afford the working geologist valuable, and in 

 the main reliable, guides in his study of comparative 

 geology. We cannot help thinking that the time has come 

 for a much wider application of the teaching of fossil 

 botany, especially in such problems of stratigraphy where 

 plant remains constitute by far the most abundant material 

 at the disposal of the geologist ; and in cases where zoology 

 and botany contribute almost equally to the fossil contents 

 of rocks, the botanical specimens may be used with con- 

 siderable advantage as confirmatory or even corrective 

 evidence by the side of fossil animals. 



Botanists have long hinted that palseontological study 

 ought to throw light on general questions of morphology, 

 but until recent times they have seldom made any serious 

 attempt to bring under contribution the contents of plant- 

 bearing strata. It is only within the last few years that 

 fossil botany has come to be regarded by working botanists 

 as a subject to which it would not be altogether hopeless to 

 turn for definite information and helpful suggestion. No 

 doubt the publication in 1887 of Count Solms-Laubach's 

 Einleitung in die Paldophytologie gave a stimulus to those 

 who wished to extend their observations beyond the limits 

 of the present age. At the same time, this comprehensive 

 treatise formed a much needed guide in giving some kind 

 of order to the great mass of isolated contributions to fossil 

 botany, and, by its cautious criticisms of conflicting views, 

 it has enabled the botanist to approach with more confi- 

 dence a department of his subject which he has hitherto 

 almost ignored. 



Since the days when microscopy was first applied to 

 the minute study of fossil plants, material has been gradu- 

 ally accumulated, and dealt with in such a manner that 

 at length the vital importance of the study has been more 

 widely recognised, and the surprisingly perfect state of 



