BULLETIN OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 



Vol. 31, pp. 389-394 September 30, 1920 



THE TEACHING OF PALEOBOTANY ^ 



BY EDWARD W. BERRY 



{Read before the Society Decemher 31, 1919) 



CONTENTS 



Page 



Introduction 389 



Relations to geology and botany 380 



Syllabus of subject-matter 391 



Relation of student and teachei- 392 



IXTRUDUCTIOX 



It is difficult to formulate the most desirable content of a course in 

 paleobotany, since so much depends upon the environment and oppor- 

 tunities for the subsequent career of the student. The difficulties of 

 combining the biological treatment with the geological perspective are 

 perhaps greater in paleobotany than in the sister science of paleozoology. 

 Shall paleobotany be considered the handmaiden of botany or of geology? 

 It would be easy to formulate such a course for an ideal world, but in a 

 world of pragmatists and when confronted with the necessity of a living 

 wage for the neophyte the problem is not so simple. Probably the grad- 

 uate in paleobotany will locate with the United States Department of 

 Agriculture or some experiment station, where he will be assigned to the 

 study of strawberry rot or potato scab, or, if the geological call is stronger 

 than the botanical, the United States Geological Survey will take him 

 on and assign him to land classification work. At any rate, the chances 

 of opportunities in his chosen subject are few indeed. 



Relations to Geology and Botany 



In the United States, and to a less extent in Austria and Germany, 

 paleobotany has been the foster-child of geology and has hence been more 



1 Manuscript received by the Secretary of the Society February 2, 1920. 

 This paper is one of a series composing a symposium on the teaching of geology and 

 paleontology. 



(389) 



