INTRODUCTORY 5 



tial part of the equipment of a fossil botanist; as it is to 

 a student of living plants. But for those who are not 

 intending to specialize on the subject micro-photographs 

 will illustrate sufficient detail, while in most modern 

 museums some excellently preserved specimens are ex- 

 hibited which show their structure if examined with a 

 magnifying glass. 



We recognize to-day the effect the vegetation of a 

 district has on its scenery, even on its more fundamental 

 nature; and we see how the plants keep in close har- 

 mony with the lands and waters, the climates and soils of 

 the places they inhabit. So was it in the past. Hence 

 the fossil plants of a district will throw much light on 

 its physical characters during the epoch when they were 

 living, and from their evidence it is possible to build up 

 a picture of the conditions of a region during the epochs 

 of its unwritten history. 



From every point of view a student of living plants 

 will find his knowledge and understanding of them 

 greatly increased by a study of the fossils. Not only 

 to the botanist is the subject of value, the geologist is 

 equally concerned with it, though from a slightly different 

 viewpoint, and all students of the past history of the 

 earth will gain from it a wider knowledge of their 

 specialty. 



To all observers of life, to all philosophers, the whole 

 history of plants, which only approaches completion when 

 the fossils are studied, and compared or contrasted with 

 living forms, affords a wonderful illustration of the laws 

 of evolution on which are based most of the modern 

 conceptions of life. Even to those whose profession 

 necessitates purely practical lines of thought, fossil botany 

 has something to teach; the study of coal, for instance, 

 comes within its boundaries. While to all who think on 

 the world at all, the story told by the fossil plants is a 

 chapter in the Book of Life which is as well worth 

 reading as any in that mystical volume. 



