PREFACE 



THE object of this work is to give such an account of palaeophytology 

 as shall meet the special requirements of the botanist, and it can scarcely 

 be necessary to offer a detailed or lengthy plea in justification of my under- 

 taking. Botany, which in former times generally treated palaeophytology 

 in a very step-motherly manner, now finds it to be a subject of the highest 

 interest to herself on account of the prominence at present assumed by the 

 point of view of the theory of descent. But it is no easy task to obtain 

 a general view of such results of palaeophytological researches as are 

 botanically useful ; for, owing to the inconceivably fragmentary condition 

 of the literature and the urgent necessity for submitting it to manifold and 

 searching criticism, the accomplishment of this task inevitably means the 

 devotion to it of years of work, and few professed botanists have this time 

 to give to it. And if our present text-books do not succeed in giving us 

 such a view, this is chiefly due to the fact that they are all more or less 

 endeavouring to serve two masters, palaeontology and botany, and in this 

 endeavour it is botany which as a rule comes worst off. It is hardly 

 possible rightly to preserve unity of presentation in a book in which equal 

 justice ought to be done to several points of view. Therefore the present 

 account of palaeophytology, which may itself appear to some readers to be 

 rather one-sided, may be allowed to step in as supplying an existing want. 

 It is a first attempt in the direction indicated, and as such it has many 

 defects which are certainly thoroughly well known to the author himself, and 

 which he begs may not be judged too severely. 



The work here offered to the general public has gradually grown up 

 out of University Lectures delivered by me in Gottingen at three different 

 times in the course of the last six years. I had at first intended to pre- 

 serve the lecture-form, but ultimately found that this was unsuitable and 

 must be abandoned. Then came the difficulty of finding a proper title. 



