THE PAST HISTORY OK MONOCOTYLEDONS 1 6/ 



Even so high an authority as the late Sir J. VV. Dawson,^ who 

 did so much for Canadian and North American fossil botany in 

 general, was disposed, during the 'seventies, to regard certain Carbon- 

 iferous: fossil fjlants as Angiosperms, e.g. Syrifigoxy/on mirabile. The 

 beds he ascribed to the Devonian are, doubtless, as pointed out by 

 M. Zeiller, Carboniferous. 



The continued pertinacity with which two of our greatest palseo- 

 botanists and the illustrious M. Ad. Brongniart, on the one hand, 

 regarded Sigillaria as a Phanerogam, and M. Renault, on the other, 

 held the view that certain types of silicified Calamiies were also 

 phanerogamous, are instances of the same kind of argument, based 

 on characters — in this case a secondary thickening of the wood — 

 which are now found to be homoplastic, and to occur in groups of 

 widely different affinity. The existence of the group monocotyledons, 

 in which there is no cambial activity, ought to have been enough to 

 warn so experienced a taxonomist as M. Brongniart. 



The founding of fossil monocotyledonous genera merely upon the 

 parallel nature of the veins is an instance of the same character. 

 Many leaves of this type belong to other groups, e.g. Cordaitales or 

 Bennettitales, and bits of Equisetaceous stems are extremely liable to 

 be confounded with them also. Many fossil fragments, e.g. Yuccites, 

 are based upon no more satisfactory material. 



In effect, very few authentic examples of fossil monocotyledons are 

 found in the rocks, and they are mainly confined to the Cretaceous 

 and Tertiary system.- Any earlier records must be looked upon with 

 suspicion, in the light of previous experience, unless based upon 

 exceptionally well preserved material. 



Most of the fossil monocotyledons hitherto described from pre- 

 Cretaceous rocks, have been founded, in fact, upon imperfect or 

 incomplete fragments of very doubtful affinity. 



I. Pandanales. 

 i. Typhacece. 



Many fragments of stems, leaves, or rhizomes have been referred 

 from time to time to Typhacese, even to plants occurring as far back 

 as the Bunter period, from which Brongniart named Echinostachys 

 ob/o/igus, a genus based on external characters which can in no wise 

 be regarded as conclusive evidence, and in this case of very doubtful 

 value. 



But in the Tertiary we certainly do find stems, leaves, rhizomes, 

 and the inflorescence of fossil plants which may be directly compared 

 with Typha /attfolia, of Linnaeus. Thus Typha /atissima, A. Br., 

 from the Tertiary of Aix, which is found also in the same rocks as far 



^ " Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc," vol. xviii. p. 305, pi. xii., fig. 145 ; and " Fossil 

 Plants of the Devonian and Upper Silurian Formations," 1S71, p. 64. 



" Miss M. C. Stopes has recently found that many of these so-called Phanero- 

 gams are wrongly ascribed. 



