CHAPTER IV 



PRESERVATION OF PLANTS AS FOSSILS 



' Some whim of Nature locked them fast in stone for us after- 

 thoughts of Creation.' Lowell. 



The failure of the earlier naturalists to grasp the 

 true significance of fossils or even to appreciate their 

 nature is an extraordinar}^ fact when we consider the 

 pioneer work which they accomplished in biological 

 and geological science. The following extract from 

 the writings of so enlightened a man as John Ray 

 serves to ilkistrate an almost incredible disinclination 

 to admit what seems to us the obvious. He wrote : — 

 'Yet I must not dissemble that there is a Pheno- 

 menon in Nature, which doth somewhat puzzle us to 

 reconcile with the prudence observable in all its 

 work, and seems strongly to prove, that Nature doth 

 sometimes ludere, and delineates figures, for no other 

 end, but for the ornament of some stone, and to 

 entertain or gratify our curiosity, and exercise our 

 wits. This is, those elegant impressions of leaves and 



