LINNEAN SOCIEIT OF LONDON. 2 7 



examination such idea appears to me to vanish." This exactly 

 expresses the usual state of the case in stems of that period. 



Ill the paper " On the Vegetable Fossils found at Leunel Braes, 

 near Coldstream," read May 10, 1830, Witham shows that these 

 trees (Pitijs antifpta and P. ^jn'»iffi'a, Witham) "must be classed 

 amougst the dicotyledonous plants" (p. 11). He attributes (not 

 quite accurately) the opinion to Brongniart that "out of six 

 classes only two existed at that time, namely the Vascular Crypto- 

 gams and the Monocotyledons, the latter containing a small 

 number of plants which appear to resemble the Palms and 

 arboi-escent Liliaceoe The existence therefore of so exten- 

 sive a deposit of dicotyledonous plants at this early period of 

 the earth's vegetation appears to demand the attention of the 

 naturalist." 



In his " Description of a Fossil Tree discovered in the Quarry 

 at Craigleith, near Edinburgh, in the month of JN^ovember, 

 1830,"* Witham speaks of this fine tree having flourished "for 

 aught we can say a million years ago " (p. 4). He had evidently 

 frankly accepted the teachings of the young science of Geology, 

 which \\as not the case with all English writers at that time. He 

 says : " Several scientific gentlemen having stated as their opinion 

 that this fossil is a Lycojwdiuyn, I may here mention the reasons 

 why I have come to a different conclusion " (p. 5). And further 

 on he adds : " In conclusion I beg to add, that we have in this 

 striking and stupendous relic of ages long gone by, an additional 

 proof amongst many others lately advanced, that plants^belonging 

 to the Gymnospermous Phanerogamic class are much more abun- 

 dant in these early sedimentary deposits than continental writers 

 would lead us to believe " (p. 10). It was in fact AVitham's chief 

 work to demonstrate the early prevalence of Gymnosperms, as is 

 more fully shown in his book ' The Internal [Structure of Fossil 

 Vegetables,' 1 833, which brings together and correlates his various 

 investigations. 



" Many fossil vegetables having lately been found, particularly 

 in the mountain-limestone series and coal-fields, belonging either 

 to the Coniferse or to a family closely allied to them, I am induced 

 to believe that those geologists who maintain that the vascular 

 cryptogamic plants almost entirely composed the flora of that first 

 period labour under a misapprehension '"' (p. 0), 



" That the preponderance of vascular cryptogamic plants was 

 considerable, I do not wish to question .... From the frequent 

 occurrence of trees possessing an exogenous structure I cannot 

 help suspecting the correctness of the assertion that ' the class 

 which almost of itself composed the flora of this period is that of 

 the vascular cryptogamic plants, and in fact that of 260 species 

 discovered in this formation, 220 belong to that class'." A few 

 years before Witham had accepted this statement, but now his 



* Nat. ITist. Soc. Nortbuinbcrlanil, Durham, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne; 

 read Dec. 28, 1830. 



