BOTANY 



during this period has certainly been a phenomenal 

 one, and he who aspires to have even a speaking 

 acquaintance with its many modern sides must be 

 a man of extraordinary activity and industry. I 

 shall therefore venture to touch upon only a few 

 of the striking discoveries in botanical science 

 which seem to stand out as landmarks in the work 

 of the last two decades, and I shall also refer briefly 

 to some of the applications of botany which have 

 transformed the subject from a largely academic 

 science into one of the great instruments of benefit 

 to mankind. 



PAL^EOBOTANY 



Although palasobotany touches upon industrial 

 problems in connection with coal, its main interest 

 to the botanist is in connection with the light it 

 throws on the evolution of the plant kingdom. 

 The records of the rocks reveal transitional groups 

 and generalised forms which throw a flood of light 

 on the origin, relationships, and descent of the 

 great plant-groups which have survived down to 

 the present time. One of the most striking con- 

 tributions of palasobotany to plant-phylogeny has 

 been the discovery of seeds attached to plants with 

 fern-like habit and foliage in the coal-measures. 

 Before making further reference to this discovery 

 it is desirable to make a few remarks about the 

 significance of the seed as an evolutionary structure. 



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