PALEONTOLOGY. 373 



is found in the Traite de Paleontologie vegetale (Paris, 

 1869-74), by Philipp Schimper, who was Director of the 

 Museum in Strasburg, and a Professor in the University. 

 Schimper handled the material essentially from a botanical 

 standpoint, but was also an admirable exponent of the geo- 

 logical relations and significance of fossil plants. 



August Schenk, for a long time (1868-91) Professor of 

 Botany in Leipzig, exerted a very great influence on the 

 advance of palseophytology in Germany. His detailed works 

 were devoted to an investigation of the flora of the French 

 Keuper, and more especially to the plant forms from the passage- 

 beds between the Keuper and Lias. These appeared before 

 1868, while Schenk was still Professor of Botany in Wiirzburg. 

 After his removal to Leipzig he came more into touch with 

 Berlin influences, and he undertook the investigation of the 

 large collection of fossil floras which had been brought from 

 China by Baron von Richthofen and Count Szechenyi. Other 

 materials examined by him were the silicified woods from the 

 Nubian sandstones, fossil wood from Cairo, the plant remains 

 from the Muschelkalk of Recoaro and from the Weald forma- 

 tion of England. 



While all these were of the nature of special researches, a 

 work of more general interest is Schenk's systematic treatment 

 of the fossil plants in ZittePs Handbook of Palaeontology. After 

 the death of Schimper, who had only completed the crypto- 

 gams and cycads, Schenk undertook in 1881 the continua- 

 tion of this work. By means of the critical method which he 

 carried out uniformly throughout his classification of flowering 

 plants in Zittel's handbook, and from which the works of the 

 highest authorities, such as Unger, Heer, Von Ettingshausen, 

 and Saporta, were not spared, Schenk practically initiated a 

 reform in palaeophytology. He showed how many of the fossil 

 genera and species had been based on insufficient grounds of 

 distinction, and how often miserably preserved fossil remains, 

 whose identification was impossible, had been used for the 

 erection of new genera or made the basis of some wonderful 

 new hypothesis. Many of the special papers on fossil plants 

 had been contributed by authors with insufficient botanical 

 training, and were in consequence an untrustworthy foundation 

 for any inductive reasoning regarding the past periods of 

 vegetation and their climatic conditions. 



Schenk was also very dubious about the value of Ettings- 



