28 , phoceedikgs of the 



than Uroiigiiiart and escaped his errors, but the riper knowledge 

 of hvter times lias fully rehabilitated the anatomical method. 



He gives an excellent account of the Coal-measures and the 

 distribution of their fossil plants ; he says it may be concluded 

 that the Conifera; [now Cordaitete] "never were associated with 

 tho Sif/iUari(i; and other ])lant8 which abound in the coal seams; 

 but that they tiourished in the neighbourhood, and were at times 

 transported to these localities" (p. 396), a conclusion confirmed by 

 later work. He also calls attention to ''the extraordinary size of 

 both the vascular and cellular tissue of many " coal-plants, a point 

 which has often struck subsequent observers, though it does not 

 extend to the Cordaitca), plants which had a different habitat. 



He admits that this singxilarly succulent texture of the typical 

 Coal flora i)0ssibly indicates a great degree of humidity, but in a 

 later paper * he shows that no reliance can be placed on this 

 argument, succulence being specially characteristic of the plants 

 of deserts ; at the same time he considered the geological evidence 

 for the swamp-flora theory of the Coal-measures conclusive. 



He was inclined to regard the Carboniferous Flora as poor in 

 species, saying "A luxuriant vegetation is no index to a varied one ;. 

 and as many of our modern woods and even great areas of tropical 

 forests consist of but a few species multiplied ad infinitum, so may 

 the forests of the Carboniferous period have been composed of but 

 a few Si</ill((n(e and Lepidodendrons, sheltering an undergrowth 

 of a limited number of kinds of ferns, for a very limited number 

 of them (comparatively speaking) if as protean as some of their 

 allies are in our day, would embrace all the known species of the 

 Fossil Flora " (p. 398). He proceeds to show that a recent Flora, 

 marked by a preponderance of ferns, is almost universally deficient 

 in species of other orders. These speculations are interesting, and 

 show how" dift'erent the point of view" was then from that of the 

 present day. The flora of a past age was then treated rather as a 

 peculiar flora of our own time might be — the evolutionary idea 

 had not taken root. "Whether the Flora of the Coal was a poor or 

 a rich one is hard to decide, for we are still very ignorant of the 

 true limits of species, a point on which Hooker's warnings are a» 

 much needed as ever. 



Hooker refused to admit that the vegetation of the Carboniferous 

 period was less highly developed than what succeeded it. His 

 remarks here are very just. " We knov:," he says, " too little 

 of the structure of the ferns of that day to pronounce them 

 either more or less complete than their allies of the present time ; 

 while of the Lycopodiacese it may be safely assei'ted, that they were 

 of a form and stature far more noble, and in structure more com- 

 plicated than any plants of that order now" existing" (p. 400). 

 His caution about the ferns is seen to be more than justified, now 

 that we have reason to believe that so many of them at that 

 period were in reality seed-bearing plants. At that time, of course,. 



* Volkmannia, 1854. 



