CHAPTER Y. 



DIFFICULTIES AND SOURCES OF ERROR IN THE 

 DETERMINATION OF FOSSIL PLANTS. 



"Robinson Crusoe did not feel bound to conclude, from the single 

 human footprint which he saw in the sand, that the maker of the 

 impression had only one leg." 



Huxley's Hume, p. 105, 1879. 



The student of palaeobotany has perhaps to face more than 

 his due share of difficulties and fruitful sources of error ; but 

 on the other hand there is the compensating advantage that 

 trustworthy conclusions arrived at possess a special value. 

 While always on the alert for rational explanations of obscure 

 phenomena by means of the analogy supplied by existing 

 causes, and ready to draw from a wide knowledge of recent 

 botany, in the interpretation of problems furnished by fossil 

 plants, the palaeobotanist must be constantly alive to the 

 necessity for cautious statement. ^That there is the greatest 

 need of moderation and safe reasoning in dealing with the 

 botanical problems of past ages, will be apparent to anyone 

 possessing but a superficial acquaintance with fossil plant 

 literature. The necessity for a botanical and geological training 

 has already been referred to in a previous chapter. 



It would serve no useful purpose, and would occupy no 

 inconsiderable space, to refer at length to the numerous mistakes 

 which have been committed by experienced writers on the 

 subject of fossil plants. Laymen might find in such a list of 

 blunders a mere comedy of errors, but the palaeobotanist must 



