84 ANCIENT PLANTS 



bered in this connection that the existing flowering 

 plants are immensely nearer in point of time to their 

 origin than are the existing Lycopods, and that when 

 such aeons have passed as divide the present from the 

 Palaeozoic, the flowering plants of the future may have 

 dwindled to a subordinate position corresponding to that 

 held by the Lycopods now. 



A noticeable character of the early flowering -plant 

 flora, when taken as a whole, is the relatively large 

 proportion of plants in it which belong to the family 

 Amentiferce (oaks, willows, poplars, &c.). This is sup- 

 posed by some to indicate that the family is one of 

 the most primitive stocks of the Angiosperms. This 

 view, however, hardly bears very close scrutiny, because 

 it derives its main support from the large numbers of the 

 Amentiferae as compared with other groups. Now, the 

 Amentiferae were (and are) largely woody resistant plants, 

 whose very nature would render them more liable to be 

 preserved as impressions than delicate trees or herbs, 

 which would more readily decay and leave no trace. 

 Similarly based on uncertain evidence is the surmise 

 that the group of flowers classed as Gamopetalce (flowers 

 with petals joined up in a tube, like convolvulus) did 

 not flourish in early times, but are the higher and later 

 development of the flower type. Now, Viburnum (allied 

 to the honeysuckle) belongs to this group, and it is 

 found right down in the Cretaceous, and Sambucus 

 (Elder, of the same family) is known in the early Ter- 

 tiary. These two plants are woody shrubs or small 

 trees, while many others of the family are herbs, and it 

 is noteworthy that it is just these woody, resistant forms 

 which are preserved as fossils; their presence demon- 

 strates the antiquity of the group as a whole, and the 

 absence of other members of it may be reasonably attri- 

 buted to accidents of preservation. In the Tertiary also 

 we get a member of the heath family, viz. Andromeda, 

 and another tube-flower, Bignonia, as well as several 

 more woody gamopetalous flowers. 



