162 
as the real commencement of paleobotan- 
ical investigation. His work gains special 
prominence by reason of his having been 
the first to definitely and authoritatively 
deny the deluge theory and to assert that 
fossil plants represent the remains of an 
earlier vegetation, the originals of which 
are no longer to be found. But it was not 
until the time of Sternberg and Brongniart, 
of Lindley and Hutton, of Witham and of 
Goppert from two to three decades later, 
that interest in this line of research gained 
sufficient impetus to make its continuity 
assured. From that time on, progress has 
advanced at an accelerating rate, but the 
one fact which we need to keep clearly before 
us is that such progress as has been made 
in this branch of botanical science has been 
accomplished within the last seventy years. 
The activity thus referred to was chiefly 
confined to Kurope, at least during the first 
half of the century, but it is of value to 
note that the great interest in such work, 
which centered there, in all probability had 
a well-defined influence upon the same line 
of studies in America—indeed, we may 
almost say a determining influence in pro- 
moting that spirit of enthusiasm for a sub- 
ject then surrounded with the greatest dif- 
ficulties, which has led to such noteworthy 
results. Itis at least a fact of more than 
passing interest that the two earliest among 
the great paleobotanists of this continent— 
Dawson and Lesquereux—entered upon 
their work here just before the completion 
of the first half-century, and it seems not 
unlikely that while the one had imbibed a 
strong predilection for such studies from 
those eminent geologists with whom he had 
been associated while a student at Edin- 
burgh, the other had gained inspiration not 
only from his scientific associates at Neu- 
chatel, but also from the success of his 
earlier efforts as a botanist and his special 
studies of peat bogs for which he received 
the government medal, and through which 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Vou. XIII. No. 318. 
also, he gained wide celebrity. It was, 
therefore, but natural that in returning to 
his native land to follow out the ideas so 
well established in Europe, Dr. Dawson 
should at once apply himself to the solution 
of the many problems which the rich de- 
posits of fossil plants in the neighborhood 
of his own home at once suggested ; and 
that Lesquereux, seeking in the United 
States an asylum from the political troubles 
which drove him and his colleagues from 
Switzerland, should at once continue there 
those studies which had already brought 
renown, and, in the rich deposits of Penn- 
sylvania, Ohio and other States, endeavor 
to read the story of the ages as inscribed in 
the rocks of the Carboniferous formation. 
These facts are of significance in consider- - 
ing the progress of paleobotanical work on 
this side of the Atlantic, since Dawson and 
Lesquereux, the one in Canada and the other 
in the United States, were its most power- 
ful exponents. Newberry was born and 
educated in the States, so that his activity 
in this direction was the result of purely 
local conditions. He, nevertheless, con- 
tributed most important results, chiefly in 
connection with public surveys, and his 
name stands with those of Dawson and 
Lesquereux as foremost among the paleo- 
botanists of this continent. Itis impossible 
to consider any progress in this subject, 
either now or in the immediate past, with- 
out reference to their work, since it stands 
as the foundation of that from which some 
of our most important deductions may be 
derived. 
Lesquereux died on the 25th of October, 
1889; Newberry died on the 7th of Decem- 
ber, 1892, while Dawson died on the 19th 
of November, 1899, and thus within the 
short space of a decade there passed from 
our midst three of the most notable of the 
scientific men of this continent. I have 
felt it to be of special importance to give 
prominence to these names, since they stand 
