322 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 195 7 



SUMMARY 



Pollen and spores have the singular advantage of being the smallest 

 plant components that can be linked taxonomically with the parent 

 plants. Their production in large numbers, together with their 

 buoyancy, has insured their representation in aerially deposited dust 

 over wide areas. Resistance of pollen and spore walls to most deg- 

 radative processes has resulted in their preservation in varied kinds 

 of sedimentary deposits from diverse environments, often from 

 deposits otherwise without fossils. 



Rapidly expanding appreciation of the presence of these micro- 

 fossils in geologic sediments, together with development of methods 

 for their recovery and criteria for their utilization, have led to appli- 

 cations in archeology, paleoecology, and paleobotany, and in stratig- 

 raphy. The developing usefulness of pollen and spores in such 

 fields as petroleum geology promises that in the future these small 

 fossils will be even more widely employed in these and other areas 

 of research. 



REFERENCES 



Babqhoobn, E. S. 



1950. Geological and botanical study of the Brandon lignite and its signifi- 



cance in coal petrology. Econ. Geol., vol. 45, pp. 344-357. 

 Dijkbtra, S. J. 



1951. Wealden megaspores and their stratigraphical value. Meded. Geol. 



Sticht., S'Gravenhage, n. s., vol. 5, pp. 7-21. 

 Dyakowska, J. 



1936. Researches on the rapidity of the falling down of pollen of some trees. 



Bull. Intern. Acad. Polon. Sci. et Lett., CI. Sci. Math, et Nat., ser. 



B (I), pp. 155-168. 

 Erdtman, G. 



1952. Pollen morphology and plant taxonomy. Angiosperms. (An intro- 



duction to Palynology, I). 539 pp. Stockholm. 

 1954. Introduction to pollen analysis. 239 pp. Chronica Botanica, 

 Waltham, Mass. 

 Faegri, Knut, and Iversen, Johs. 



1950. Textbook of pollen analysis. 168 pp. Copenhagen. 

 Fret, David G. 



1954. A differential flotation technique for recovering microfossils from 

 inorganic sediments. New Phytol., vol. 54, No. 2, pp. 257-258. 

 Godwin, H. 



1948. Studies of the postglacial history of British vegetation, part 10. 

 Philos. Trans. Roy. Soc. London, ser. B, No. 600, vol. 233, pp. 

 275-286. 

 Hyland, F. ; Graham, B. F. ; Steinmetz, F. H. ; and Vickers, M. A. 



1953. Maine air-borne pollen and fungus spore survey. 97 pp. University 



of Maine, Orono. 

 Iversen, Johs. 



1936. Sekundares Pollen als Fehlerquelle. Danmarks Geol. Unders0gelse, 

 IV Raekke, Bd. 2, No. 15. 



