VI. 



Amber and Fossil Plants. 



OF the various media of fossilisation there are few, if any, which 

 afford us such vivid glimpses of the period in which the 

 organisms preserved as fossils formed part of the existing faunas and 

 floras, as Amber and its included organic remains. To most people 

 the fact of insects being found in Amber is well known, but few, 

 possibly, are aware of the botanical treasures which have been 

 found embedded and almost perfectly preserved in this substance. 

 Plant fragments sealed up in fossil resin, with the minutest detail of 

 structure intact, reveal many facts of no little interest from a 

 botanical and geological point of view : they afford us, moreover, a 

 faithful record of the conditions which obtained in those forests whose 

 trees supplied the preserving material. 



To briefly refer to a few of the plants and plant fragments found in 

 Amber, and note what conclusions may be drawn from their examination, 

 may not be without interest. 



Our knowledge of the Amber plants is due mainly to the labours 

 of Goeppert, Menge, and Berendt ; and in more recent years Conwentz 

 has contributed exceedingly interesting and valuable memoirs on the 

 same subject. 



The substance Amber, first mentioned by Homer, began to 

 attract attention in 600 B.C., when Thales, of Miletus, one of the 

 Seven Sages, discovered its remarkable properties from which sprang 

 the Science of Electricity, so called from the Greek term for Amber, 

 ijXfKrpoy. Without attempting to trace the history of Amber and o f 

 the various theories as to its true nature, we may note that, even in 

 the time of Aristotle and Pliny, guesses were made as to its source of 

 origin which came very near the truth. Under the general term 

 Amber are included a number of fossil resins whose chemical and 

 physical properties need not be considered in detail. The following 

 varieties are mentioned by Conwentz (2) : — Gedanite, Glessite, Stan- 

 tienit, Beckerite, and Succinite. Succinite, the commonest and best 

 known of these, is generally described as a resin exuded from an 

 extinct species of Pine, Pinus succinifera (Goepp.). Doubtless this 

 species of Conifer was only one of several which yielded this particular 

 kind of resin. The chemical c cm position of Succinite is given by 



