148 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 32. 



lie finally published an elaborate memoir in 

 1870.* This was his principal contribution 

 to the external parts of fossil plants. Be- 

 ing an adept at the microscope he turned 

 his attention to their internal structure, and 

 found this study so fascinating and so prof- 

 itable as to allow it to engross almost his 

 entu-e energies from about the year 1869 to 

 the end of his Ufe. 



An important paper appeared in 1869 on 

 the ' Structure and Affinities of Some Exo- 

 genous Stems from the Coal Measures, 'f and 

 in quick succession during the same and the 

 following years a number of papers describ- 

 ing his studies on the genus Calamites.j 

 These papers constituted the natural pre- 

 lude to his great series on the ' Organization 

 of the Fossil Plants of the Coal Measures,' 

 the first of which related to the genus 

 Calamites and appeared in 1871. § From 

 this date these memoirs continued to ap- 

 pear in the Philosophical Transactions at 

 the rate of a little more than one each year, 

 so that the last memoir, of which he was the 

 sole author, is No. 19, and is to be found 

 in the lS4th volume, published in 1893. 



After his removal to London, in 1892, he 

 associated with him the accomplished struc- 

 tural botanist. Dr. D. H. Scott, Honorary 

 Keeper of the Jodrell Laboratory at Kew, 

 and they worked together in the prepara- 

 tion of an additional memoir, which was 

 laid before the Society on December 30, 

 1893, and an abstract of which appeared in 

 the Proceedings of the Eoyal Society, Vol. 

 LV., 1894, without illustrations. This 



* Trans. Liun. Soc, Vol. XXVI., 1870, pp. 663- 

 674, pi. lii.-liii. 



t Monthly Mlcrosc. Jour., Vol. II., London, 1869, 

 pp. 66-72, pi. xxii. 



tProc. Lit. Phil. Soc. Manchester, Vol. VIII., 

 1869, pp. 36-38; 153-155; Vol. IX., 1890, pp. 7-9; 

 76-78; Mem. do., 3cl Ser., Vol. IV., 1869, pp. 155- 

 179; 1871, pp. 155-183; 284-265; Vol. V., 1871, pp. 

 28-46, pi. i.-iii., etc. 



? Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. Loudon, Vol. CLXI., 1871, 

 pp. 477-510, 111. xxiii.-xxix. 



memoir relates to Calamites, Calamostachj^s 

 and Sphenophyllum. At the Oxford Meet- 

 ing of the British Association Dr. Scott 

 laid before the Botanical Section the princi- 

 pal results of this investigation, accom- 

 panied by profuse illustrations projected on 

 the screen. As I had read the abstract be- 

 fore leaving America, I was naturally 

 deeply interested in this paper, which it was 

 my good fortune to hear. I had written to 

 Professor Williamson that I intended to 

 attend the British Association, and had re- 

 ceived a reply in which he stated that he 

 would not be present and begged me to 

 visit him at his country cottage in Sussex, 

 wliich, to my great regret, I was unable to 

 do. But at Oxford I received another let- 

 ter from him, renewing his invitation and 

 alluding in no uncertain terms to certain 

 tendencies in modern science which he had 

 always deplored. This part of his letter 

 contains so clear an expression of his views 

 on this question, which he had never pub- 

 lished, that I cannot do better than to quote 

 it here. 



" I had intended coming to Oxford to 

 utter my final protest against the growing 

 multitude of Paleobotanical species mongers 

 who are reducing the study of Paleobotany 

 to a state of inextricable confusion. But I 

 concluded that I should only expend my 

 breath for nought and become engaged in 

 angry controversies, hence I resolved to 

 leave the entire race who find pleasure and 

 renown in attaching the mj^stic ' mihi ' to 

 the vast number of unidentifiable fragments 

 that have now been accumulating from the 

 days of Artis, Sternberg and Brongniart to 

 the present day. I refuse to recognize any 

 one of my names given in my numerous 

 memoirs as being specific. Thej' are mei'ely 

 convenient terms helping us to identify cer- 

 tain types of organization — anj- one of which 

 may embrace an indefinite number of true 

 species, if indeed any such have a real ex- 

 istence." 



