^^^""1 CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES. 413 



factenkuude" also began to appear in that year, to which several of the 

 most prominent German paleobotanists contributed. 



Three very important works appeared in 1840. Bowerbank's " Fos- 

 sil Fruits and Seeds of the London Clay ""■? marked a great advance in 

 the state of knowledge of the remarkable bodies studied by him, and 

 which, since Parsons^ss called attention to them in 1757, and in fact 

 for many years previous to that time, had excited the Interest of both 

 the learned and the unlearned. Of these remarkable forms Bowerbank 

 established ten genera, all but two of which (Hightea and Cucumites) 

 are accepted by Schimper in his " Traits de paMontologie v6g6tale." 

 The number of species distinguished is quite large, and the descrip- 

 tions and illustrations are very thorough and exact. The work is in- 

 tensely scientific, and the reader is rarely referred to other authors or 

 to any of the collateral circumstances that would have so greatly aided 

 him in understanding it properly. Exact localities are rarely given, 

 though the island of Sheppey seems to have furnished a large share of 

 the specimens. 



The work of Steininger,"^ treating of the fossil plants of what he 

 designates as the " pfalzisch-saarbriickische Steinkohlengebirge," may 

 next be mentioned, in which 83 species of coal plants are described, 

 with 17 illustrations. The work, however, is chiefly geognostic. 



Eossmassler's treatise on the lignitic sandstone about Altsattel in 

 Bi)hemia,'^" almost marks an epoch in the science of fossil plants from the 

 resolute, and in many respects, successful manner in which the author 

 attacks the problem of dicotyledonous leaves, which had thus far been 

 regarded as beyond the power of science to harmonize with the living 

 flora. He clearly realized the objections to the use of Sternberg's uni- 

 versal genus P%Uites for all plants of this class, and in stating these ob- 

 jections he says, among other things, that in the great quantity of leaves 

 that will be distinguished in the course of careful investigations of Ter- 

 tiary strata the species of this vague genus Phyllites cannot fail to increase 

 so enormously that all resources for deriving specific names will be ex- 

 hausted. He first proposed to himself to determine the true genera to 

 which the leaves seemed to belong, and then to append the old name 

 phyllites to these genera, as, e.g., Leuco-phyllites,Daphno-phyllites, etc.; 

 but the fear of responsibility, the comparatively unimportant and local 

 character of his work, and the advice of friends deterred him from car- 

 's' James Scott Bowerbank. A History of the Fossil Fruits and Seeds of the Loudon 

 Clay. London, 1840. 



'** James Parsons. An Account of some Fossils and other Bodies found in the Island 

 of Shepey. Phil. Trans., 1757, Vol. L, pp. 2, 396. 



■^ J. Stelninger. (Jeognostische Beschreibung des Landes zwischen der unteren 

 Saar und dem Eheine. Bin Bericht an die Gesellschaft niitzlicher Forschungen zu 

 Trier. Trier, 1840. 



•^"E. A. Eoasmassler. Beitrage zur Versteinerungskunde. Erstes Heft. Die Ver- 

 Bteiuerungen des Braunkohlensandsteins, aus der Gegend von Altsattel in Bohmeu. 

 Dresden und Leipzig, 1840. 



