PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 725 



From 



Bagshaw, Walter, Elementary Photomicrography. (Svo,! ,™ g Author 



London, 1902) ) 



Hardesty, Irving, Neurological Technique. (8vo, Chicago audi theVniverdtvof 



London, 1902) | Chicago Pre J 



Mann, Gustav, Physiological Histology. (8vo, Oxford, 1902){ tJcl^elZnPrL. 



Board of Agriculture. Report on Distribution of Grants,\ The Board 



1901-2. (8vo, London, 1902) ) of Agriculture. 



Internationale Monatschrift fiir Anatomic mid Physiologic) „,, F ,-. 



Bd. xix. Heft 1-12. (8 vo, Leipzig, 1902) / *neM.auor. 



The President said they were to be favoured that evening with a 

 demonstration on ' The Microscope in Fossil Botany,' and he could not 

 say how much he felt indebted to Dr. Scott for coming there to give 

 them this, which he was quite sure would prove to be a paper of very 

 great interest. 



Dr. D. H. Scott said that when the President asked him to give to 

 the Society some account of the structure of fossil plants ho was proud 

 to agree to do so, but when he remembered that a paper had been read 

 by their late President on a similar subject he felt himself in a some- 

 what difficult position in having to follow one who was so high an 

 authority on these questions. He thought, however, that he might also 

 •congratulate himself on the fact that after so able an exposition on that 

 occasion, those who were then present already had some acquaintance 

 with the subject, so that there would be no need for him to touch on 

 the general history of fossil botany. The particular department of 

 palseontological research concerned with the structure of plants was one 

 •of comparatively modern origin. Of course fossil wood, which was the 

 most familiar example of vegetable remains with structure preserved, had 

 been known for a long time, but anything like a scientific study, with 

 the idea of investigating the organisation of fossil plants, was scarcely 

 attempted until the beginning of the nineteenth century. Among the 

 earliest specimens to attract attention were those curious examples from 

 Saxony, the " Staarsteine " or Psaronii, which are the silicified stems of 

 tree-ferns. Bernard Cotta in 1832, and Witham of Lartington in 1833 

 almost simultaneously published accounts of what they had discovered : 

 in "Witham's work great assistance was given by Nicol, who cut the 

 sections, and by Macgillivray, who acted as artist. Later on Brongniart 

 in France, who had already begun his classical investigation of fossil 

 plants, turned his attention to this branch of the subject. His mono- 

 graph on Sigillaria elegans (1839) is a model of what such a work should 

 be ; he placed the whole subject on a sound basis, and did more for 

 fossil botany than any one previously. 



In England, Sir Joseph Hooker and, at a later date, Binney likewise 

 made important contributions to structural fossil botany, while no one 

 had done more for the subject than Kenault in France, or Solms-Laubach 

 in Germany. He hardly needed to refer to the work of the late Presi- 

 dent of the Society, or to that of Prof. Williamson who had published 

 so magnificent a series of researches on the fossil plants of the coal 

 measures. It was peifectly plain to anyone who knew anything of 

 botany, that there was a wide difference between a knowledge of the 



