^■«"] CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES. 419 



amber flora had greatly increased, and 163 species are enumerated in 

 this paper. This result was, however, in the main achieved through 

 the indefatigable labors of Dr. Goppert. ' 



In strong contrast with 1845 stands the next year, at least as regards 

 the importance of the works produced relating to fossil plants. Bunker's 

 monograph of the Wealden"* is perhaps the leading contribution of 

 1846, and this embraces all departments of paleontology for that group. 

 But the plants form a prominent feature. Fifty species of Wealden 

 plants are enumerated as having been thus far found in Germany and 

 England, nearly all of which are described and figured. In this last 

 respect Bunker's work is all of a high order, which is nowhere more 

 strongly displayed than in the treatise under consideration. 



Goppert's papers were numerous in 1846, and at least one " Ueber die 

 fossile Flora der Grauwacke oder des Uebergangsgebirges",^" contained 

 the germ of one of his future great works.^" 



Heer^'i^ and Bunbury (supra^ p. 379, note 19) both commenced in 1846 

 to write on fossil plants. 



The only great work devoted to paleobotany that appeared in 1847 

 was Unger's "Ghloris Protogsea,"^" which, as already stated, was pub- 

 lished in ten numbers, the first of which came out in 1841. In the course 

 of the preparation of these numbers his " Synopsis plantarum fossilium " 

 appeared, which we have already noticed. The entire matter of this 

 little work was introduced bodily, and apparently unchanged, into the 

 larger one, forming its second part. The first part, or introduction, is 

 entitled " Skizzen einer Geschichte der Vegetation der Erde." This is 

 an able discussion of the leading problems as they presented them- 

 selves at that time and went far toward the solution of some of them. 

 The body of the work is strictly descriptive, and here we find 120 species 

 characterized, all new to science or consisting of corrected determina- 

 tions of other authors. What specially distinguishes this work, how- 

 ever, from all that have thus far been reviewed is the very large percent- 

 age of dicotyledonous species, mostly from Parschlug, embraced in these 

 descriptions. Considerably over one-half of the number belong to this 

 subclass and to such genera as Ulmus, Alnus, Betula, Quercus, Acer, 

 Ehus, Platanus, Ceanothus, Ehamnus, etc. He seems to have reached 

 his determinations of these genera by an intuitive perception of the 

 general and special resemblances of the fossil to the living leaves, with 



^'^Wilhelm Dunker. Monograpliie der Norddeutsclieii Wealdenbildung. Ein Beit- 

 rag zur Geognosie und Naturgesohichte der Vorwelt. Braunschweig, 1846. 



sisUebersioht der Arbeiten der schlesien Gesellschaft, 1846, pp. 178-184 (expanded 

 in the Zeitsohrift d. deutsch. geol. Gesellsch. Band III, 1851, S. 185). 



2" Fossile Flora des Uebergangsgebirges, Nov. Act. Acad. Caes. Leop. Car. Nat. Cur. 

 Band XXII, Snppl. Breslau & Bonn, 1852. 



2i6The first paper of which we have a record is the one " Ueber die von ihm an der 

 hohen Rhone entdekten fossilen Pflanzen," which appeared in the Verhandlungen der 

 Bchweizerischen Gesellschaft for 1846, pp. 35-38. 



316 Franz Unger. Chloris Protogaea. Beitrage zur Flora der Vorwelt. Leipzig, 1847, 



