1846—1878] MISCELLANE01 2 39 



is much stronger and truer than " public." As Lycll wrote Letter 573 

 various other books and memoirs, I have some little doubt 

 about the Principles of Geology. People lure do not like 

 your "enduring value": it sounds almost an anticlimax. 

 They do not much like my "List for endure) as Ion 

 science lasts." If one reads a sentence often enough, it 

 always becomes odious. 

 I ,. id help y< 11 



To Oswald Heer. 1 Lcltcr 574 



Down, March 8th [1875]. 

 I thank you for your very kind and deeply interesting 

 letter of March 1st, received yesterday, and for the present of 

 your work, which no doubt 1 shall soon receive from Dr. 

 Hooker. 8 The sudden appearance of so many Dicotyledons 

 in the Upper Chalk 3 appears to me a most perplexing phe- 

 nomenon to all who believe in any form of evolution, especially 

 to those who believe in extremely gradual evolution, to which 

 view 1 know that you are strongly opposed. The presence of 

 even one true Angiospcrm in the Lower Chalk 4 makes me 



1 Oswald Heer (1809 83) was born at Niederulzwyl, in the Canton 

 of St. Gall, Switzerland, and for many years (1S55 S2) occupied the chair 

 of Botany in the University of Zurich. While eminent as an entomologist 

 Heer is chiefly known as a writer on Fossil Plants. He began to write on 

 paheobotanical subjects in 1X41 ; among his most important publications, 

 apart from the numerous papers contributed to scientific societies, the 

 following may be mentioned : Flora Tertiaria Helvetia, 1 S 5 5 59 ; the 

 Flora Fi^silis Antica, 7 vols., 1869-83 ; Die Urwelt der S, , ; 



Flora Fossilis Helvetia, 1876-7. He was awarded the Wollaston medal 

 of the Geological Society in 1S74, and in 187S he received a Royal medal. 

 (Oswald Heer, Bibliographic et Tables Tconographiques, par ('.. Malloizel, 

 //<</<// d*une Notice Biographiqtte par R. Zeiller; Stockholm.) 



■ Flora lu'ssilis Arctica, Vol. III., 1874, sent by Prof. Heer through 

 Sir Joseph Hooker. 



3 The volume referred to contains a paper on the Cretaceous Flora of 

 the Arctic Zone (Spitzbergen and Greenland), in which several dicotyle- 

 donous plants are described. In a letter written by Heer to Darwin the 

 author speaks of a species of poplar which he describes as the oldest 

 Dicotyledon so far recorded. 



4 No satisfactory evidence has so far been brought forward of the 

 occurrence of fossil Angiosperms in pre-Cretaceous rocks. The origin of 

 the Monocotyledons and Dicotyledons remains one of the most difficult 

 and attractive problems of Paleobotany. 



