2S PIIOCEEDINGS OF THE 



views had matured, lie was, in fact, the first to challenge the 

 description of the Pakcozoic period as the "Age of Cryptogams." 

 The latest progress of the science has heen on the same lines 

 as his. AVitliam rightly emphasized the higli organisation of the 

 early floras, thoiig]i somewhat overstating Ihe case owing to hia 

 not having fully grasped the width of the distinction between 

 the Gymnosperms and the true Dicotyledons. 



lie regarded the predominance of Vascular Cryptogams as indi- 

 cating the presence of a damp forest, where the remains of the 

 ])laiits had been preserved in sifu, while the Phanerogamic fossils 

 represented a hill flora, from which the trunks had drifted down 

 streams into lakes or pools. 



The absence of concentric circles, and especially the nature of 

 the pits — the longitudinal series of hexagonal markings on the 

 walls of the wood-cells facing the medullary rays, — led VVitham to 

 infer that the Craigleith trees " are not Couifera;, or at least 

 not in all respects similar to the Coniferoe of the present day." 

 lie extends this inference to the allied species, and concludes : 

 "It is, however, certain that hitherto no structure precise!)' resem- 

 hling that of the Couiferae in every respect has been found in the 

 jNIountain limestone series or in the Coal formation ; but the 

 alleged absence of phanerogamic trunks in these deposits has been 

 fully and, I trust, satisfactorily refuted " (p. 49). His conclusion 

 is strictly correct, though the grounds on which he based it may 

 not be perfectly convincing. He recognised that the Liassic and 

 Oolitic woods which he placed in the genus Pence, are evident 

 Conifers, which the older fossils are not, though " of the same 

 natural family " (p. 69). 



Witham's work on the fossil Gymnosperms was perhaps the 

 most important of his life; he also has the credit of having been 

 the hrst to describe the structure of a fossil Lycopod, for we owe 

 to him the original description and figures of LepiJodcndrGn Ifar- 

 conrtii, "beyond all doubt," as Lindley and Hutton said, "the 

 most remarkable discovery in the science of Fossil Botany." * 

 AVithara himself showed equal enthusiasm. He says: " 1 had 

 so repeatedly examined the stems of vascular cryptogamic plants 

 witliout detecting any trace of organisation, that I cannot refrain 

 from mentioning the delight which I experienced when 1 observed 

 a structure so perfect. 1 am the more gratified as it affords me 

 an opportunity of corroborating the opinion of so distinguished 

 a botanist as Mr. A. Brougniart, though founded solely upon the 

 external markings of the peculiar plants." t 



He compared the structure with that of the stem of Li/cojwcUinn 

 clavatum, but it is not surprising that he was not altogether 

 successful in interpreting so unfamiliar a type as that of the 

 Le^ndodendron. 



* ' Fossil Flora,' vol. ii. p. 4fi. 



t "On the Lepidodoidron. Harcourlii." Reatl at the Natural History Society 

 of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, March 1832. 



