75 
the predecessors of Count Sternberg in fossil botany. Although 
this writer died in 1832, and was an honorary member of this So- 
ciety, he has never been noticed in the annual address ; I may there- 
fore here add a few words with reference to him. Baron E. F. von 
- Schlotheim was Privy Councillor and President of the Chamber at 
the court of Gotha, and his collection of Petrifactions has long been 
celebrated throughout Germany. Besides his Flora of a Former 
World, or Descriptions ef remarkable Impressions of Plants, which 
appeared in 1804, he published, in 1820, ‘ Petrifactenkunde, or the 
Science of Petrifactions according to its present condition, illustrated 
by the Description of a Collection of petrified and fossil remains of 
the animal and vegetable kingdom of a former world.’ And in 1822 
and 1823 he published Appendixes to this work. His collection was 
also further made known by articles in Leonhard’s Mineralogical 
Pocket Book and in the Isis. After his death a new description of 
this collection was announced, but whether it appeared I am not 
able to say. Schlotheim’s introduction to his account of his collec- 
tion contains some extensive geological views. 
It is only justice to M. de Schlotheim to add here what is said of 
him by M. Adolphe Brogniart, whose own labours on fossil vege- 
tables have been of such inestimable value to the geologist, and are 
every year increasing in interest. ‘“ Almost half a century,” he says, 
“ elapsed, during which no important work appeared on this subject. 
It was not till 1804 that the ‘ Flora of the Ancient World, by M. 
de Schlotheim, again turned the attention of naturalists to this branch 
of science. More perfect figures, descriptions given in detail and 
constructed with the precision of style which belongs to botany, and 
moreover some attempts at comparison with living vegetables, showed 
that this part of natural history was susceptible of being treated like 
the other branches of science: and we may say, that if the author 
had established a nomenclature for the vegetables which he described, 
his work would have become the basis of all the succeeding labours 
on the same subject.” 
In attempting a sketch of the subjects which have occupied the 
attention of the Society during the year, I should wish to retain that 
G2 
