166 The Science of Life. 



important works by Sternberg, Cotta, Unger, Goppert, 

 and others soon followed. Goppert is memorable for 

 his experiments on the artificial fossilization of plants, 

 which cleared up some obscured points, and for his dis- 

 covery of the plant remains in coal. 



Of great importance was Adolphe Brongniart's Pro- 

 drome d'une histoire des vegetaux fossiles (Paris, 1828) 

 and subsequent works, in which the author, following 

 on Cuvier's lines, brought the past and the present to- 

 gether in mutual illumination. He was one of the first 

 to outline the marvellous picture of the succession of 

 "floras" upon the earth the cryptogamic vegetation 

 of the primary ages, the dominance of conifers and 

 cycads in the secondary ages, the progress of angio- 

 sperms throughout the Tertiary times. 



In England the palaeontology of plants was for a 

 time less enthusiastically prosecuted. Lindley and 

 Hutton published in 1831-37 their three volumes on 

 the Fossil Flora of Great Britain] Witham began the 

 study of the minuter internal structure of fossil plants ; 

 and there were early contributions of importance by 

 Hooker, Williamson, and others. To appreciate the 

 present position of " phyto-palaeontology " one must 

 consult the botanical part of Zittel's great Handbuch 

 der Palceontologie, or the works of Solms-Laubach and 

 Saporta. 



Even to name the workers of the Cuvierian school 

 who raised palaeontology to the dignity of being re- 

 The garded not merely as auxiliary to geology, 



Cuvierian but as a distinct department of biology, is 

 impossible within the narrow limits of this 

 chapter, and would serve no useful purpose. We must 

 restrict ourselves to keeping up the historical continuity 

 by a note on two of the most outstanding representa- 

 tives Richard Owen and Louis Agassiz. 



It may be said with fairness that the mantle of Cuvier 



fell upon Owen (1804-1893), for his indefatigable in- 



Richard dustry was for the most part devoted to 



Owen. analytic comparative anatomy; but it must 



also be recognized that under the Cuvierian mantle 



he wore, so to speak, part of the costume of Oken. 



