PALEOBOTANY. 11$ 



growth of the brain, and from that time the contest 

 has been one of intelligence. 



Paleobotany. 



The fossil history of plants has not been so much 

 studied as that of animals, and much less is known 

 about it ; or at all events it has given less important 

 results. Plants are not so easily preserved as animals 

 with hard parts, and while from a few specimens it is 

 known that an abundant flora existed even in the 

 Silurian era, the record is very meagre. In general, 

 paleobotany offers somewhat the same sort of testi- 

 mony as that which we have examined above. The 

 plants of the Silurian, however, present no such diffi- 

 culties as do the animals, chiefly perhaps because so 

 little is known about them. They constitute a quite 

 well developed flora of Algae, Sigillaroids, Lycopods, 

 ferns, and Equisitacea, all plants of undoubted low 

 scale of organization. Conifers make their appear- 

 ance next, in the Devonian, and Dawson claims to 

 have found here an angiosperm. This claim is more 

 than doubtful, however, and the Devonian is on the 

 whole characterized by Cryptogams and Gymno- 

 sperms. This flora passed directly over into the 

 profuse vegetation of the Carboniferous age, with 

 little change, nearly all of the genera of the one 

 period being found in the other, though few of the 

 species are common to the two. At this time also 

 Monocotyledons made their appearance. With the 

 beginning of the Mezozoic the Cycads are expanded, 

 while the peculiar carboniferous forms are disap- 

 pearing. In the upper Cretaceous rocks finally ap- 



