CHAPTER II. 



RELATION OF PALAEOBOTANY TO BOTANY AND 

 GEOLOGY. 



" La recherche du plan de la cr&tion, voila le but vers lequel nos efforts 

 peuvent tendre aujourd'hui." Gaudry, 1883. 



Since the greater refinements and thoroughness of scientific 

 methods and the enormous and ever-increasing mass of literature 

 have inevitably led to extreme specialisation, it is more than 

 ever important to look beyond the immediate limits of one's 

 own subject, and to note its points of contact with other lines 

 of research. A palaeobotanist is primarily concerned with the 

 determination and description of fossil plants, but he must at 

 the same time constantly keep in view the bearing of his work 

 on wider questions of botanical or geological importance. From 

 the nature of the case, we have in due measure to adapt the 

 methods of work to the particular conditions before us. It is 

 impossible to follow in the case of all fossil species precisely the 

 same treatment as with the more complete and perfect recent 

 plants; but it is of the utmost importance for a student of 

 palaeobotany, by adhering to the methods of recent botany, to 

 preserve as far as he is able the continuity of the past and 

 present floras. Palaeontological work has often been undertaken 

 by men who are pure geologists, and whose knowledge of zoology 

 or botany is of the most superficial character, with the result 

 that biologists have not been able to avail themselves, to any 

 considerable extent, of the records of extinct forms of life. 



