■jG PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



CDiitrihution is a lunslei'ly work, oontaiiiiiifr, aiiion^ oilier tliinps, a 

 most accurate and elaborate iiivestijration oF tie complex anatomy 

 of I'saronhts, and incidentally establishing, for the first time, the 

 true nature of the jMediillosean sten) as a polystelic structure, 

 comparable in its ground plan to the stem of the hi<rher Ferns. 



A couple of years later Zeiller published another French fossil 

 Flora, tliat of the Permo-Carboniferous strata of Brive, in the 

 iJepartment of Correze *. In addition to the description and 

 illustration of species, this volume contains valuable observations 

 on the fructification of Ferns, in particular that of Ztjgopteris, 

 afifordinf^ an important extension of Keuault's results. 



After an interval of ten years yet another great Flora saw the 

 light, belonging, this time, to a diftereut period and a remote region. 

 This is his w ork on the fossil plants of the coal-deposits of Tonkin, 

 in French Indo-Chinat. Fully 30 years before, in 1882, Zeiller 

 had determined the age of these beds as lihtetic; his final mono- 

 graph is one of the most important contributions we possess to 

 the Flora of this period, so interesting to the palseobotanist. 



Eeturning to the fossil treasures of his own country, Zeiller 

 published in 190G his Permo-Carboniferous Flora of Blanzy and 

 Creusot J. This was the first important Flora to be published 

 after the discovery of the Pteridosperms, and Zeiller had to face 

 the difficulty of distinguishing between the members of the new 

 group of ISeed Plants and the true Ferns, \\hich they so closely 

 resemble. He wisely decided, on practical grouTuls, to keep the 

 two classes together, for floristic purposes. Among the other 

 jilants described is that remarkable Lycopod Selar/inelUfes Snissei, 

 Mhich might be interpreted as a primitive tvpe of the Selaginellas. 

 The difficulties involved in such a filiation are critically discussed. 

 Apart from the great Floras just enumerated, Zeiller wrote, 

 at one time or another, on fossil plants from every part of the 

 world. His work on the Flora of the Lower Gondwana appeared 

 in 1902, under British auspices, in the ' Pateontologia Iiidica.' 



The floristic work of Zeiller was in part of geological interest, 

 and so far stood in close relation with his official duties as a 

 mining engineer. At the same time he kept purely botanical 

 questions equally in view, and the most acute and judicious treat- 

 ment of points of affinity and morphology characterizes his 

 systematic treatises. As fossil Floras they have certainly never 

 been surpassed. 



One of Zeiller's lines of work was the correlation of the Coal 

 Measures of JS'orthern France with those of "Westphalia and the 

 South of England. AVhen the Kentish coal-borings were under- 

 taken, it was naturally to Zeiller that the plants found were 

 referred, and several papers on the subject were the result. 



* Etudes des Gites Mineraux de la France. Eassin Iloiiillcr et rcrniien 

 Hv Brive. Flore Fossile. Paris, 1>^')-. 



t Ibid. Colonies Fran^-aises. Flore Fossile des Gitcs do Cliarl on de 

 Tonkin. Paris. l'.in2-3. 



X Ibid. UiisMn llouillcr ot I'erniien do Pianzy tt dii Cri'di-ot. Flore 

 F».ssile. Paii.s PJ()(>. 



