422 SKETCH OF PALEOBOTANY. 



distribution of the extinct genera and species of fossil plants are here 

 systematically set forth and superbly illustrated. A memoir on the 

 same subject^^^ appeared in the " Annales des sciences natnrelles" for the 

 same year, in a manner summarizing his views and giving lists of fossil 

 plants belongiug to each horizon. In seeking to avoid all duplications 

 that result from giving different names to different parts of the same 

 plant, his enumeration is reduced to very modest proportions and 

 falls inside of 1,600 species, while, by treating OEningen and Parschlug 

 as Pliocene instead of Miocene, he greatly exaggerates the importance 

 of the former horizon at the expense of the latter. But the era of 

 Miocene exploration had only just begun, and that formation did not 

 give evidence of its present overshadowing supremacy until the labors 

 of Heer and Bttingshausen began to reveal its true character. 



Pattison's "Chapters on Fossil Botany'^^ is a very superficial at- 

 tempt to treat the subject in a popular way, and its only value is a table 

 of British fossil plants, which, if it could be depended upon, would show 

 the number then known to amount to 529, of which 279 were from the 

 coal measures, 120 from the Tertiary, and 89 from the Oolite. 



A large number of works and memoirs on vegetable paleontology 

 appeared in 1850, perhaps exceeding that of any previous year. Most 

 of these, however, were of modest pretensions, and only two can prop- 

 erly be classed among great works on the subject. These were Unger's 

 "Genera et species plantarum fossilium " ^^^ and Goppert's "Mono- 

 graphic der fossilen Coniferen. "^^^ 



As linger had in 1845 published, in his " Synopsis," the first complete 

 catalogue of fossil plants, so he was the first, in 1850, to publish a com- 

 plete manual on the subject, for such is the nature of his " Genera et 

 species." This work is a shapely octavo volume of 668 pages, written 

 wholly in Latin, and describing in systematic order every species of 

 fossil plant known to the author. The total number thus described 

 is 2,421, a large advance upon any previous estimate. Among the 

 good features of the work are an enumeration of the genera under 

 their proper orders and classes in a table that precedes the descriptive 

 part, the reproduction, brought down to date, of his previously pub- 

 lished " Literatura nostri aevi," and a thorough species index at the 

 end, distinguishing synonyms by printing them in italics. In his classi- 

 fication he follows the natural order of development, beginning with 

 the lowest forms. He declines to follow the English authorities in 



''^Exposition clironologique des p^riodea de v6g6tation et des flores diverses CLui se 

 sent SQcc6d6 h la surface de la terra. Ann. Soi. Nat. Bot.,3« s6r., Tome XI, 1849, 

 pp. 285-338. 



^'^ S. E. Pattison. Chapters on Fossil Botany. London, 1849, 12mo. 



'="■ Franz Unger. Genera et species plantarum fossilium. Sumptibus Academiae 

 CEesarcBB scientiarum. Vindobonae, 1850. 



^^'H. R. Goppert. Monographie der fossilen Coniferen. Eine im Jabre 1849, 

 mit der goldenen Medaille und einer Premie von 150 Gulden gekronte Preisschrift. 

 Leiden, 1850. Naturkundige Verhandelingen van de Hollandscbe Maatscbappij der 

 Wetenscbappen te Haarlem. Tweede Verzameling, 6= Deel. Leiden, 1850. 



