76 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVIII. No. 



scientious and careful methods of procedure, 

 for a period of almost thirty years. 



Dr. Ward possessed a good working knowl- 

 edge of botany and geology at the time when 

 he entered upon his duties in the Survey, and 

 it is interesting to note that one of the earliest 

 of his published works was a " Guide to the 

 Flora of Washington and Vicinity" — the 

 fruit of his many local tramps and explora- 

 tions from which he derived the keenest pleas- 

 ure. Several short articles, published in the 

 American Naturalist and elsewhere, had pre- 

 ceded this, two of which " On the Natural 

 Succession of the Dicotyledons " and " Homol- 

 ogies in the Lauraceae," may be cited as fore- 

 shadowing the philosophical and evolutionary 

 tendency of the works that were to follow. 

 The drift into paleobotany was almost inevi- 

 table, even had it not been included in the line 

 of official duties. Among the titles of papers 

 which appeared in rapid succession, for ex- 

 ample, were such as " Evolution in the "Vege- 

 table Kingdom," "The Ginkgo Tree," "The 

 Paleontologic History of the Genus Pla- 

 tanus," " Historical View of the Fossil Flora 

 of the Globe," " Geological View of the Fossil 

 Flora of the Globe," "Botanical View of the 

 Fossil Flora of the Globe," " Sketch of Paleo- 

 botany," " Geographical Distribution of Fossil 

 Plants," etc. The two last mentioned are ex- 

 haustive dissertations which are standard 

 works of reference for all who are interested 

 in the bibliography and general principles of 

 the subject and the recorded localities in which 

 fossil plants have been found in the different 

 parts of the world. These two works, issued 

 in 1885 and 1888, respectively, demonstrate in 

 a striking manner the wide acquaintance with 

 paleobotanical literature which he had already 

 acquired,, and the wealth of such material 

 which he had so rapidly gathered together. 

 The pioneers of the science in America — Daw- 

 son, Newberry and Lesquereux — had blazed 

 the way ; but it remained for Dr. Ward to real- 

 ize the necessity for systematic preparation in 

 order to insure accuracy and to place the sci- 

 ence on a firm and dignified footing which 

 would win for it the recognition that it de- 

 served. With his tireless energy and persist- 



ence he gradually gathered together, largely 

 through personal correspondence and ex- 

 change, all obtainable works directly or indi- 

 rectly treating of fossil plants, and thus built 

 up a library which, with recent additions, is 

 to-day, without doubt, the most complete of 

 its kind in the world. 



He also foresaw the necessity of having at 

 hand, for ready and accurate reference, an in- 

 dex of the genera and species of fossil plants 

 and their places of publication. He fully real- 

 ized the years of hard work, both mental and 

 mechanical, which the undertaking involved, 

 with but little to show as an ultimate result 

 which would be appreciated or even under- 

 stood by any except the limited number of 

 persons actively interested in paleobotanical 

 investigations. Nevertheless it was under- 

 taken and has been successfully continued and 

 elaborated and brought up to date; and it is 

 no exaggeration to say that the accuracy and 

 completeness which characterize the paleobo- 

 tanical publications of the Survey are in large 

 measure due to this work, conceived and begun 

 by Dr. Ward. It includes some 80,000 refer- 

 ences to descriptions and illustrations of fossil 

 plants, and a bibliography of about 12,000 

 titles by about 2,000 authors. Dr. Ward's 

 titles alone, including reviews, number about 

 one hundred and fifty. Critical paleobotanical 

 work in America can not be prosecuted without 

 its aid, and all American students and writers 

 on the subject must, at times, consult it and 

 the library connected with it, in order to ob- 

 tain information nowhere else available. 



The relations of fossil plants to geology, and 

 their value and importance in stratigraphie 

 investigations, were discussed and indicated 

 in many of Dr. Ward's more extended works, 

 such as " Synopsis of the Flora of the Laramie 

 Group," " Evidence of the Fossil Plants as to 

 the Age of the Potomac Formation," " The 

 Plant-bearing Deposits of the American 

 Trias," " Principles and Methods of Geologic 

 Correlation by Means of Fossil Plants," 

 " Status of the Mesozoic Floras of the United 

 States," etc. He also contributed the article 

 on Fossil Plants for Johnson's Encyclopedia 



