^■^^^] EARLY HISTORY OP PALEOBOTANY. 385 



expanded this field of knowledge. Mr. Oarruthers was elected a fellow 

 of the Eoyal Society in 1871. 



In terminating this enumeration here it is evident that the limit of 

 space and not of matter has been the motive. The aim has been rather 

 to consider the great names in the ijast history of the science than to 

 venture an estimate of the worth of present workers in it, and if a num- 

 ber of living representatives have been named it is because their services 

 have already been so great as to have given a special color to that his- 

 tory and to afford a safe basis for judging of their future work. With 

 most of the many present devotees of paleobotany this last condition at 

 least does not exist, and the fear of coming far short of doing them 

 justice, at least in the estimation of their future biographers, has de- 

 terred me from introducing their names into this brief rSsume. 



But aside from this class no little diflftculty has been encountered in 

 choosing from among the older workers, and although in many cases 

 no two would agree where the line should be drawn, it is by no means 

 improbable that some obvio us mistakes have been made, and that names 

 which have been omitted should have been substituted for some that 

 have been mentioned. Defects of this class, and also those of various 

 other kinds, may, however, be partially remedied in the treatment of 

 the next division of the subject, in which the field will be less restricted 

 in this respect, and we shall look more especially to the work done than 

 to the men who have done it. 



B. — SKETCH OP THE EARLY HISTORY AND SUBSEQUENT PROGRESS 



OF PALEOBOTANY. 

 1. THE PRE-SCIENTIPIC PERIOD. 



Science often has its origin in wonder at unexplained phenomena, and 

 there is no science of which this is more true than of paleontology. 

 Nearly all the early writers openly avow that they have been chiefly 

 spurred on to undertake and carry on their investigations by au " eager 

 curiosity"'^ respecting the objects they were treating, and the first col- 

 lections of such objects were looked upon simply as curiosities, while 

 what have since become the greatest scientific institutions in the world 

 sometimes betray their origin by perpetuating the original names 

 expressive of their sense of wonder." 



Ko greater objects of wonder have presented themselves to man's 

 consideration than the fossils which from the earliest times have been 

 observed in different parts of the earth's crust. The efforts of the ra- 

 tional mind to interpret these phenomena, although they may seem 

 amusing to the unthinking, are really of deep philosophic and even 

 scientific interest. It may surprise some to learn that the conclusions 



« Parkinson's Organic Remains of a Former World, 1804, p. t. 

 « For example the great Academia Csesarea Leopoldino-Carolina Naturae Curiosorum, 

 founded in 1670 at Frankfort-on-the-Main. 

 GEOL 84 25 



