396 SKETCH OP PALEOBOTANY. 



(2) the exotic theory, and (3) the extermination theory. The most of 

 them, however, admitted two or more of these explanations to account 

 for different facts which could not be brought under a single one. 



Scheuchzer, the great apostle of the Flood theory, considered the fos- 

 sils as ordinary plants still to be found, and he gave them names taken 

 from the standard botanical works, with all of which he was familiar, 

 as well as with the flora of Switzerland, the Alps, and Europe in gen- 

 eral. In the "editio novissima"of his "Herbarium diluvianum," 1723, 

 he attempted in an appendix to arrange them all according to the sys- 

 tem of Tournefort. Among the genera which he confidently puts down 

 are found Gallium (= Galium), Pragaria, Fumaria, Osmunda, Saxifraga, 

 Sorbus, Trifolium, Vitis, etc., and he occasionally ventures to give the 

 species, as Populus nigra. Volkmann, in his "Silesia subterranea" 

 (1720), is not less certain that he sees in one impression the myrrh of 

 the Scriptures, and in another the common Hippuris, or mare's-tail. 

 Lange"' (1742) and Moering"'' (1748) were satisfied with the faintest 

 resemblances to living plants, while Lehmann"'' (1756) labored hard to 

 prove that the impressions of Annularia sphenophylloides, which occur 

 at different depths in the coal mines near Ihlefeld, Hohenstein, were 

 flowers of Aster montanus {A. Amellus or A. Sibiricus) caught in full 

 bloom and petrified in situ. Many others '"* preceded Walch, who was 

 himself unable to free himself from the popular conceptions. He com- 

 pared his Lithophytes with indigenous plants, from which he also de- 

 rived certain supposed fossil flowers. 



The exotic theory, though equally untrue with the indigenous theory, 

 marked a decided advance, since it was the outcome of careful study, 

 and a supposed escape from some of the objections to the other mode 

 of explanation. Very early. in the century certain authors had been 

 led by curiosity or some other motive to compare the finest of these im- 

 pressions with specimens of living plants, then already well represented 

 in European herbariums, from many distant countries. The earliest case 

 of this kind on record is that of Leibnitz, who in 1706 furnished a note'" 

 on the occurrence of impressions of supposed Indian plants in Germany, 

 a conclusion which he arrived at from a comparison of fossils with liv- 

 ing species from India, and believed them to agree. Twelve years 



'"Niolaus Laugius. De schisto ejus indole atque genesi meditationes cum descrip- 

 tione duorum vegetabilium rariorum, etc. Acta Acad. nat. cur., Tom. VI Ann n 

 133, tab. II. ft ' 1 • 



■"Paul Gerard Moering. Phytolithus zem Linnaei in schisto nigro. Acta Acad, 

 nat. cur., Tom. VIII, p. 448. 



"5 J. G. Lehmann. Dissertation sur les fleurs de I'Aster montanus, ou pyr^naique 

 pr^coce a, fleurs bleues et h feuilles de saule, empreintes sur I'ardoise. Hist.' de I'acad. 

 des sci. et de belles lettres de Berlin, 1756, pp. 127-144. 



"" C. F. Schultze. Die bei Zwickau gefundeneu Krauterabdriicke. Neue eesell- 

 Echaftl. Erzahlungen, 1758. Theil J, pp. 42-48. 



P. F. Davila, Catalogue syst^matique et raisonn^ des curiosit^s de la nature et de 

 I'art. Paris, 1767. See Tome III, pp. 237-254, PI. VI, VII, VIII. 



'" Histoire des sciences, Paris, 1706, pp. 9-11. 



