PALEONTOLOGICAL DISCOVERY. 365 



siles," issued in 1828-'48. Brongniart pursued the same method as 

 Cuvier and Lamarck, viz., the comi^arison of fossils with living forms, 

 and his results were of great importance. In his " Tableau des Genres 

 Yegetaux Fossiles," etc., published in Paris in 1849, he gives the classi- 

 fication and distribution of the genera of fossil plants, and traces out 

 the historical progression of vegetable life on the globe, as he had 

 done to a great extent in his previous works. He shows that the cryp- 

 togamic forms prevailed in the Primary formations, the conifers and 

 cycads in the Secondary, and the higher forms in the Tertiary, while 

 four fifths of living plants are exogens. 



In England, Lindley and Hutton published, in 1831-'37, a valuable 

 work in three volumes, entitled " Fossil Flora of Great Britain." This 

 work was illustrated by many accurate plates, in which the plants of 

 the coal formation were especially represented. Henry Witham also 

 published two works in 1831 and 1833, in which he treated especially 

 of the internal structure of fossil plants. " Antediluvian Phytology," 

 by Artis, was published in London in 1838. Bowerbank's " History 

 of the Fossil Fruits and Seeds of the London Clay " appeared in 1843. 

 Hooker's memoir " On the Vegetation of the Carboniferous Pei'iod as 

 compared with that of the Present Day," published in 1848, was an im- 

 portant contribution to the science. Bunbury, Williamson, and others, 

 also published various papers on fossil plants. This branch of paleon- 

 tology, however, attracted much less attention in England than on the 

 Continent. 



In Germany, the study of fossil plants dates back to the beginning 

 of the century. Von Schlotheim, a pupil of Werner, published in 

 1804 an illustrated volume on this subject. A more important work 

 was that of Count Sternberg, issued in 1820-'38, and illustrated with 

 excellent plates. Cotta, in 1832, published a book with the title " Die 

 Dendrolithen," in which he gave the results of his investigations on 

 the inner structure of fossil plants. Von Gutbier, in 1835, and Germar, 

 in 1844-'53, described and figured the plants of two important locali- 

 ties in Germany. Corda's " Beitrage zur Flora der Vorwelt," issued at 

 Prague, in 1845, was essentially a continuation of the work of Stern- 

 berg. Lunger's " Chloris Protogsea," 1841-45, " Genera et Species 

 Plantarum Fossilium," 1850, and his larger work, published in 1852, 

 are all standard authorities. It the latter, the theory of descent is ap- 

 plied to the vegetable world. Schimper and Mougeot's " Monograph 

 on the Fossil Plants of the Vosges," 1845, was well illustrated, and 

 contained noteworthy results. 



Goppert in 1836 published a valuable memoir entitled " Systema 

 Filicum Fossilium," in which he made known the results of his study 

 of fossil ferns. In the same year, this botanist began a series of experi- 

 ments in which he attempted to imitate the process of fossilization, as 

 found in nature. He steeped various animal and vegetable substances 

 in waters holding, some calcareous, others siliceous, and others metal- 



