446 Canadian Record of Science. 



and which he admitted he had seen nothing like ; but he 

 would work seriously only at his own British material, 

 and things directly connected with it. 



Williamson's discoveries in this way were, many of 

 them, almost as strange as if he were to find in the older 

 geological formations, mollusks and crustaceans with back- 

 bones similar to those now restricted to vertebrate animals. 



It was a necessity of the kind of investigation pursued 

 by Dr. Williamson that it could only to a limited degree 

 be methodical and continuous. Hence, a structure, fol- 

 lowed up and described as far as material would permit, 

 might in a short time be further illustrated by new speci- 

 mens, and had to be returned to perhaps more than once. 

 Thus, the numerous and beautifully illustrated papers 

 published in the Philosophical Transactions require careful 

 study, even on the part of special pakeo-botanists, before 

 they can be fully appreciated. Their author was himself 

 endeavouring, of late years, to remedy this by a systematic 

 index, and by gathering into later memoirs the substance 

 of the previous work ; but he did not live fully to com- 

 plete the task, and a systematic and arranged summary 

 of his life's work has still to be given to the world. The 

 German botanist, Solms-Laubach, has largely availed 

 himself of it in his work on " Fossil Botany," but he has 

 used Williamson's material very imperfectly. 



There are few, therefore, yet, who can walk in imagina- 

 tion through the carboniferous forests, and regard their 

 productions with the advantage of the new light thrown 

 on them by Williamson. Now and then, when in Man- 

 chester, he endeavoured, in popular lectures — which were 

 gems in their way — to explain the substance of his dis- 

 coveries ; but only partially. 



The twenty memoirs in the Transactions of the Royal 

 .Society (the last in conjunction with his friend Dr. Scott) 

 will form his most enduring monument. They consti- 

 tute a truly gigantic work, since every single fact which 



