6 HISTORICAL SKETCH. [CH. 



treatise on palaeobotany in its various aspects, which has to a 

 large extent formed the model for the best subsequent works 

 on similar lines. From the same author, at a later date, there 

 is at least one contribution to fossil plant literature which 

 must receive a passing notice even in this short sketch. In 

 1839 he published an exhaustive account of the minute 

 structure of one of the well-known Palaeozoic genera, Sigillaria; 

 this is not only one of the best of the earliest monographs on 

 the histology of fossil species, but it is one of the few existing 

 accounts of the internal structure of this common type^ The 

 fragment of a Sigillarian stem which formed the subject of 

 Brongniart's memoir is in the Natural History Museum in the 

 Jardin des Plantes, Paris. It affords a striking example of 

 the perfection of preservation as well as of the great beauty 

 of the silicified specimens from Autun, in Central France. 

 Brongniart was not only a remarkably gifted investigator, 

 whose labours extend over a period connecting the older and 

 more crude methods of descriptive treatment with the modem 

 development of microscopic analysis, but he possessed the 

 power of inspiring a younger generation with a determination 

 to keep up the high standard of the palaeobotanical achieve- 

 ments of the French School. In some cases, indeed, his disciples 

 have allowed a natural reverence for the Master to warp 

 their scientific judgement, where our more complete knowledge 

 has naturally led to the correction of some of Brongniart's con- 

 clusions. Without attempting to follow the history of the science 

 to more recent times, the names of Heer, Lesquereux, Zigno, 

 Massalongo, Saporta and Ettingshausen should be included 

 among those who rendered signal service to the science of fossil 

 plants. The two Swiss writers, Heer^ and Lesquereux*, contri- 

 buted numerous books and papers on palaeobotanical subjects, 

 the former being especially well known in connection with the 

 fossil floras of Switzerland and of Arctic lands, and the latter 

 for his valuable writings on the fossil plants of his adopted 

 country, North America. Zigno* and Massalongo * performed 

 like services for Italy, and the Marquis of Saporta's name will 



1 Brongniart (39). « Heer (55) (68) (76). 



3 Lesquereux (66) (70) (80) etc. * Zigno (56). s Massalongo (51). 



