'^*""' PIONEERS IN PALEOBOTANY. 401 



neglected. They were content to regard them as incontestable proofs 

 of the Deluge, and closed all further investigation until they were at 

 last compelled to explain their occurrence through other great natural 

 operations which had probably been going on earlier and more univer- 

 sally than the flood described in the Bible, and influencing the forma- 

 tion of the upper strata of the earth's crust; and more recent observa- 

 tions and investigations have even led us to the very probable supposi- 

 tion that they maybe the remains of an earlier so-called pre-adamitic crea- 

 tion, the originals of which are now no longer to he found. * * * In 

 the continued investigation of this subject this opinion, with certain 

 restrictions, has in fact gained a high degree of probability with the 

 author of the present work, so that he ventures to announce his treatise 

 as a contribution to the flora of the ancient world ( Vorwelt).^' 



Since its introduction by Schlotheim this expression, " Flora der Vor- 

 welt," has been applied to nearly all the German works on fossil plants, 

 and-" Beitrage zur Flora der Vorwelt" still continue to appear. Only 

 one volume of this work appeared at this time, with fourteen plates ; the 

 completion, owing to political disturbances which so often interrupt the 

 quiet march of science, was deferred until the year 1820, when the re- 

 maining plates were published with the first and with those relating to 

 animal remains as au atlas to his " Petrefaktenkunde." ^'^ 



Schlotheim worked conscientiously, drew his figures clearly and 

 well, and sought diligently in all the European herbaria for forms with 

 which his fossil plants could be compared. He seriously doubted the 

 identity of the plant that had always been regarded as the common 

 Hippuris vulgaris, and concludes that if any of the species he has figured 

 are still living they must belong to tropical countries. 



An important English work,"« one volume of which is devoted to 

 vegetable remains, and bears date 1804, or the same as Schlotheim's 

 " Flora der Vorwelt," has for its title "Organic remains of a former 

 world," the last two words of which are a fair translation of the Ger- 

 man Vorwelt. Dr. Parkinson was a very learned man, and shows that 

 he was familiar with the continental literature of his subject, but he 

 nowhere refers to Schlotheim's work, and may safely be assumed to 

 have been unacquainted with it. ^'^ The work is written in an erudite 

 manner, and is full of historical interest, but as a contribution to science 

 it is far inferior to that of Schlotheim. The figures, though better than 

 most of those of the time, are less clear than the German author's, even 

 where true leaf-prints and fronds are figured. But they mostly depict 

 specimens of petrified wood and problematical fruits. Parkinson did 



™ See the " Petrefaktenkunde," p. 424. 



"s James Parkinson. Organic remains of a Former World. An examination of 

 the mineralized remains of the vegetables and animals of the antediluvian world ; 

 generally termed extraneous fossils, Vol. I, containing the Vegetable Kingdom. 

 London, 1804. 



isT A remark made by M. Sohimper (Traits de pal. v^g., Tome I, p. 8) might lead to 

 the supposition that this work had been written many years later. 



GEOL 84 2Q 



