4 HISTORICAL SKETCH. [CH. 



strata of the Earth at the time of the universal deluge recorded 

 by Moses." Scheuchzer of Zurich, the author of one of the 

 earliest works on fossil plants and a "great apostle of the 

 Flood Theory," figures and describes a specimen as an ear 

 of com, and refers to its size and general appearance as 

 pointing to the month of May as the time of the deluged 

 Another English writer, Dr Parsons, in giving an account of 

 the well-known ' fossil fruits and other bodies found in the 

 island of Sheppey,' is disposed to dissent from Woodward's 

 views as to the time of the flood. He suggests that the fact 

 of the Sheppey fruits being found in a perfectly ripe condition, 

 points to the autumn as the more probable time for the oc- 

 currence of the deluge'''. 



In looking through the works of the older writers, and 

 occasionally in the pages of latter-day contributors, we fre- 

 quently find curiously shaped stones, mineral markings on rock 

 surfaces, or certain fossil animals, described as fossil plants. In 

 Plot's Natural History of Oxfordshire, published in 1705, a 

 peculiarly shaped stone, probably a flint, is spoken of as one 

 of the ' Fungi lethales non esculenti^' ; and again a piece of 

 coral* is compared with a ' Bryony root broken off transversely.' 

 On the other hand, that we may not undervalue the pains- 

 taking and laborious efforts of those who helped to lay the 

 foundations of modern science, we may note that such authors 

 as Scheuchzer and Woodward were not misled by the moss- 

 like or dendritic markings of oxide of manganese on the 

 surface of rocks, which are not infrequently seen to-day in the 

 cabinets of amateurs as specimens of fossil plants. 



The oldest figures of fossil plants from English rocks which 

 are drawn with any degree of accuracy are those of Coal- 

 Measure ferns and other plants in an important work by 

 Edward Lhwyd published at Oxford in 1760^ 



Passing beyond these prescientific speculations, brief refer- 

 ence may be made to some of the more eminent pioneers of 

 palaeobotany. The Englishman Artis^ deserves mention for 



1 Scheuchzer (1723), p. 7, PI. i. fig. 1. 2 Parsons (1757), p. 402. 



3 Plot (1705), p. 125, PI. VI. fig. 2. 4 xi^id^ pi. yi. fig. 2. 



5 Lhywd (1760). 6 Artis (25). 



