1921.] The Eighth Indian Science Congress. clilt 
fossil plants of India have received a great deal of attention. 
eed, it is to the geologists that we owe not only the 
wealth of material now available, but also the first compretien- 
sive account of this valuable material. To the geologist, how- 
ever. the importance of a fossil plant centres round its value as 
an index of the age of a stratum. The structure of the relic is 
to him a comparatively trivial matter, and the name applied 
to it is no more than a mere symbol. The botanist, on the 
other hand, is mainly interested in its structure and affinities, 
for he regards it as a stage in the evolutionary history of plants. 
To him, therefore, even the name that is applied to a fossil 
is often a matter of real concern, lest it should convey a mis- 
leading impression as to our actual knowledge of its relation- 
ships. 
My own interest in palaeobotany raises the hope that I 
may help to bring this fascinating subject more prominentiy 
to the notice of my countrymen; and perhaps even succeed in 
inducing a larger number of them to turn their attention to the 
rich field that it offers for original investigation. With this 
end in view I propose to devote my address to a brief review 
of the present position of Indian palaeobotany. 
Before proceeding further I wish to make it clear that by 
contrasting, as 1 have done, the geological and the botanical 
standpoints in palaeobotany, I do not in any sense venture to 
compare their intrinsic values. And I repeat, as indeed will 
also be clear from what I have to say. that without the energy 
and the resources of the Indian geologists the science of fossil 
plants in this country would have been practically nowhere. 
At the same time it will, I think, be agreed that it is only by a 
combination of the two points of view that the best scientific 
results can be obtained. 
HISTORICAL SKETCH. 
The history ot our knowledge of Indian fossil plants is for 
the most part embraced by the publications of the Geological 
Survey of India, ! which was founded in the middle of last cen- 
tury. Long before that time, however, the great French palaeo- 
botanist Ad. Brongniart (Brongniart 1828, 1828-37) had describ- 
ed a few fossil plants from this country. In 1839 J. F. Royle 
(Royle 1839), in his well known ‘Illustrations of the Botany 
and other Branches of Natural History of the Himalaya Mount- 
tains.” included figures of some fossil plants, which were sul 
sequently re-examined by the late Dr. E. A. Newell Arber 
(Arber 1901), who also described (Arber 1905) the British Mu- 
ides numerous references in the earlier volumes of the Journal of 
the Asiatic Society of Bengal and a few in European journals such as the 
Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, the Geological Magazine, 
and others. 
