PAET I. GENEEAL. 



CHAPTEE I. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 



" But particular care ought to be had not to consult or take relations 

 from any but those who appear to have been both long conversant in these 

 affairs, and likewise persons of Sobriety, Faithfulness and Discretion, to 

 avoid the being misled and imposed upon either by falsehood, or the 

 ignorance, credulity, and fancifulness, that some of these people are but 

 too obnoxious unto." John Woodwakd, 1728. 



The scientific study of fossil plants dates from a compara- 

 tively recent period, and palaeobotany has only attained a 

 real importance in the eyes of botanists and geologists during 

 the last few decades of the present century. It would be out 

 of place, in a short treatise like the present, to attempt a 

 detailed historical sketch, or to give an adequate account of 

 the gradual rise and development of this modem science. An 

 excellent Sketch of Palaeobotany has recently been drawn up 

 by Prof. Lester Ward', of the United States Geological Survey, 

 and an earlier historical retrospect may be found in the introduc- 

 tion to an important work by an eminent German palaeobotanist, 

 the late Prof Goppert^ In the well-known work by Parkinson 

 on The Organic Remains of a Former World ' there is much 

 interesting information as to the early history of our knowledge 



1 Ward (84). ^ Goppert (36). * Parkinson (11), vol. i. 



S. 1 



