August 9, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



143 



South of France has been made as well 

 known to science as is its living flora. 



While in the midst of the studies of the 

 Tertiary flora of southern France he under- 

 took another even more ambitious work, 

 being nothing less than a complete mono- 

 graph of the Jurassic Flora of France to 

 be published in the great paleontological 

 serial, the ' Paleontologie Franjaise.' This 

 monumental work was issued in fascicles 

 to the number of forty-seven, beginning 

 in January, 1872, and ending in July, 

 1891. It was finally published in four 

 large volumes, Avith an aggregate of over 

 2000 pages and 300 plates, royal octavo. 

 It is a complete systematic treatise on the 

 entire Jurassic Flora of France, from the 

 Infi-alias or Ehetic to the Purbeck, and 

 like all Saporta's works, which differ in 

 this respect from those of most paleobotan- 

 ical authors, it is founded vipon a most care- 

 ful study of the living vegetation of the 

 globe. 



It seems almost incredible that in the 

 midst of these great labors Saporta should 

 have found time for anything else beyond a 

 few minor contributions ; but not only was 

 the number of these latter large and their 

 magnitude often considerable, but several 

 of them rise to the dignitj^ of impoi-tant 

 works. Among such are to be mentioned 

 his classical memoir on the Fossil Flora of 

 Sezanne,* at the extreme base of the Ter- 

 tiary; the still more extended monograph of 

 the ' Pliocene Flora of Meximieux, Depart- 

 ment of Ain,' in which, however, Professor 

 A. F. Marion, of the University of Mont- 

 pelier, was associated with him ; f a fine es- 



* Prodrome d'une Acre fossile des Travertins au- 

 ciens de Sezanne. Mem. Soc. Giol. de France, 3e S6r., 

 Vol. VIII., Paris, 1868, pp. 287-438, pi. xxii.-xxxvi. 



t Recherches sitr les vegetaux fossiles de Mexi- 

 mieux, par le Comte G. de Saporta et M. le Dr. A. F. 

 Marion; pr^ced^es d'une introduction stratigraphique 

 par M. Albert Falsan. Archives du Museum d'His- 

 toire natxu-elle de Lyon, Vol. I., Lyon, 1876, pp. 131- 

 335, pi. xxi-xxxviii. 



say on the ' Flora of Geliuden ' * in Belgium, 

 a formation in the extreme Upper Creta- 

 ceous, which appeared in 1873, with a revis- 

 ion of the same f in 1878, in both of which> 

 as in the one last mentioned. Professor 

 Marion assisted him; the handsome vol- 

 iime which he published in 1879, entitled 

 ' Le monde des plantes avant I'apparition de 

 I'homme,' which is a popular account of the 

 whole subject of fossil plants written in a 

 lucid and fascinating style, and which is 

 to-day the best popular work on the sub- 

 ject and was translated into German by 

 Carl Vogt in 1881 ; a still larger work some- 

 what in the same line but much less popu- 

 lar, and in the preparation of which Pro- 

 fessor Marion was again associated with 

 him, viz., ' L'Evolution du regne vegetal,' 

 published in three volumes as one of the 

 International Scientific Series, no English 

 translation of which has appeared. The 

 first volume of this work, published in 

 1881, relates to the Crj^ptogams, and the 

 second and third, which apjpeared in 1883 

 and 1885, resj)ectively, to the Phanerogams. 

 This is the most successful attempt thus 

 far made to trace the development of plants 

 from its earliest beginnings to its latest 

 forms by the aid of paleontology, and if it 

 be true, as is generally admitted, that com- 

 plete success in this attempt was not at- 

 tained, it will nevertheless form the basis 

 for all future researches in this Une. 



Another and very dilTerent task was un- 

 dertaken when in 1882 he essayed to reply 

 to the strictures of Dr. A. G. aSTathorst on 

 the nature of the supposed fossil algse of 

 the earliest rocks. To this controversy he 

 has contributed two elaborate treatises, the 



*Essai sur I'etat de la vegetation a I'epoque des 

 marnes heersiennes de Geliuden, par le Comte G. de 

 Saporta et le docteur A. F. Marion. M6m. Cour. 

 Acad. roy. Belgique, Vol. XXXVII., No. 6, Brux- 

 elles, 1873. 



t Revision de la flore heersienne de Gelinden, par 

 le le Comte G. de Saporta et le Dr. A. F. Marion. 

 Op. oit., Vol. XLL, No. 3, Bruxelles, 1878. 



