"^^^""■^ IGNORANCE OF THE ANCIENTS. 387 



It is only in so far as they relate to fossil plants that these general 

 considerations can be entered into here, although so closely are all 

 branches of paleontology blended in those early and, as it were, undif- 

 ferentiated stages of their historical development that too strict a con- 

 struction of this rule might exclude matter -which has an important 

 bearing upon paleobotany. The special science, however, must be 

 regarded as very much younger than the general one. Indeed, while 

 there is no doubt that the ancients were familiar with several kinds of 

 animal fossils, particularly shells and corals, it is generally believed 

 that they were wholly unacquainted with any form of vegetable petri- 

 faction.'' This complete ignorance seems to have continued through- 

 out the middle ages down to the thirteenth century. 



It is certainly surprising that so common an object as a piece of pet- 

 rified wood should never have been observed by intelligent .people in- 

 habiting limestone regions like those of Greece and Italy, and it is hard 

 to believe that this was really the case. It is more reasonable to suppose 

 that such things were sometimes seen and wondered at by rustics, but 

 that for some reason they escaped being recorded; or they may have 

 been recorded in some work that has failed to come down to us, like the 

 two lost books of Theophrastus. 



°3 " D'empreintes v6g6taleB ou de debris v6g6taux p^trifi^s, nulle mention chez les 

 anciens." (Schimper, loo. cit, p. 1. See also Brongniart, Histoire des v^g^taux fos- 

 siles, Tome I, p. 1 ; Sprengel, Commentatio de Psarolithis, p. 7 ; Goppert, Syst. Fil. 

 Fobs., p. 8.) 



The following are among the passages most commonly quoted in support of the 

 opposite Tiew : 



"Palmati [lapides] circa Mundamin Hispania, ubi Caesar dictator Pompeium vicit, 

 quotiesftegeris." (To the word "palmati" is attached the following foot-note: " Qui 

 palmee intus fracti referant.") (Plinius, Nat. Hist., XXXVI, 29. Dolphin Classics, 

 111, Pliny, 9, p. 4749.) 



' ' In Ciconum flnmine, et in Piceno lacu Velino lignum deiectum, lapideo cortice 

 obducituT, et in Surio Colohidis flumine, adeo ut lapidem plerumque durans adhuc 

 integat cortex. Similiter in Silaro, ultra Surrentum, non virgulta modo immersa, 

 verum et folia lapidescunt, alias salubri potu ejus aquse. In exitu paludis Eeatinse 

 saxum cresoit." (ioc. ait., II, 106.) 



" Syringitis - stipulsB, internodio similis, perpetua fistula cavatur." (Loo. cit., 

 XXXVII, 67.) 



" Qui navigavere in Indos Alexandri milites frondem marinarum arborum tradi- 

 dere in aqua ■viridem fuiase, exemptam sole protiuus in salem arescentem. Juucos 

 [truncos] qnoque lapideos perquam similes veris per littora," etc. (Theophrastus, 

 loc. dt., XIII, 51.) 



" Qnarti generis elatiten vooari quamdiu crudus sit : cootum vero militen, utilem 

 ambustis, ad omnia utiliorem rubrioa." {Loo. dt., XXXVI, 38.) 



"Dryites e tranois arborum : hsec et ligni modo ardet." {Loc. dt, XXXVII, 73.) 



Consult also, Theophrastus, Hepi Aidoov, Sect. XXIX ; Strabo, Geographica, Lib. 

 XVI ; and Pansanias, Grseciae Descriptio, Lib. I, cap. 43. 



All these passages have, however, been carefully studied, and the conclusion reached 

 that they refer only to stones resembling trunks, fruits, etc., to madrepores, to in- 

 crustations, or other mineral substances, and not in any case to real petrifactions. 



