BY A. B. WALKOM 5 
That the study of fossil plants may have a definite 
economic value has been shown by the late Dr. Arber, 
whose application of paleobotany to the geology of coal 
resulted in an extensive consulting practice in that 
- connection. 
The greatest difficulty in dealing. with fossil plants 
lies in the fact that usually the material is fragmentary, 
and, therefore, in the great majority of cases, it is not 
possible to obtain an accuracy comparable with that 
obtainable in the examination of recent plants. Never- 
theless, even from the fragmentary material available, 
useful and reliable results may be obtained by careful 
observation and deduction. Unfortunately for the subject 
of Paleobotany, care has not always been exercised either 
in the choice of name or in the selection of specimens for 
naming. As Professor Seward has said :—** Worthless 
fossils are frequently designated by a generic and specific 
title ; an author lightly selects a new name for a miserable 
fragment of a fossil fern-frond without pausing to consider 
whether his record is worthy of acceptance at the hands 
of the botanical paleographer.”’ Sir Joseph Hooker's 
remark in his Introductory Essay to the Flora of New 
Zealand, that “the naturalist has to seek truth amid 
errors of observation and judgment and the resulting chaos 
of synonymy which has been accumulated by thoughtless 
aspirants to the questionable honour of being the first to 
name a species,’’ may be applied equally well to fossil floras. 
More recently, and nearer home, Mr. J. H. Maiden, speaking 
of the Australian Cainozoic flora, says :— ‘In the opinion 
of the most experienced botanists in Australia the botanical 
determinations and deductions built by some paleobotanists 
upon mere leaf impressions are to be regretted.” 
In the earlier stages of paleeobotany there was undoubt- 
edly a tendency to propose new names with too little reason, 
but it must be borne in mind that research work to-day 
is carried out under conditions which lend themselves far 
better to the production of accurate results than thirty 
years ago. And though such criticism as that by Mr. 
Maiden may be warranted in some few cases, I am pleased 
to be able to say that during some years of close study of 
Australian fossil floras, I have found that cases to which 
