372 SKETCH OF PALEOBOTANY. 



4. ^roji^mart— Schlotheim and Sternberg may be regarded as pio- 

 neers of the science of paleobotany. Brongniart is universally admitted 

 to have been its true founder. The science may properly be said to 

 have been born in 1828, the year in which both the " Prodrome " and 

 the " Histoire des v6g6taux fossiles " appeared. It was these two works 

 that gave it that powerful impetus which forced its immediate recogni- 

 tion and called into its service a large corps of colaborers with Brong- 

 niart, rapidly multiplying its literature and increasing the amount of 

 material for its further study. 



Adolphe Theodore Brongniart was born at Paris in 1801 and died 

 in the same city in 1876. His father, Alexandre, was eminent in 

 science, and the author of at least one memoir relating to fossil plants.^ 

 Adolphe turned his attention early to botany and continued through 

 life to devote himself to living plants ; but his great specialty was the 

 study of the extinct forms, and his labors in this field extend through 

 nearly half a century. His very first memoir, " Sur la classification et 

 la distribution des v6getaux fossiles en g^n^ral, et sur ceux des terrains 

 de sediment sup6rieur en particulier," which appeared in the "M^moires 

 du Mus6um d'histoire naturelle de Paris " (pp. 203-240, 297-348) in 1822, 

 was one of great merit and importance, as shadowing forth the compre- 

 hensive system which he was to elaborate. It was a decided improve- 

 ment upon the classifications previously proposed by Sieinhauer, Stern- 

 berg, Martins, etc., and was later employed, with extensive modifications, 

 in the "Prodrome." The great "Histoire," though pushed well into 

 the second volume and enriched by nearly two hundred plates, was un- 

 fortunately never finished, and has come down to us in this truncated 

 condition. The causes which led to this result are understood to have 

 been of a pecuniary character, and the author continued his investiga- 

 tions and published his researches for many years chieflj- in the "Annates 

 des sciences naturelles de Paris." His next most important work, how- 

 ever, viz., his " Tableau des genres de v^g^taux fossiles," was published 

 in the " Dictionnaire universel d'histoire naturelle" in 1849. The mere 

 mention of these titles gives a very inadequate idea of the importance 

 of Brongniart's work. The systematic manner in which the science was 

 organized and built up by him made him the highest authority on the 

 subject of fossil plants, and the numerous, more or less elaborate me- 

 moirs that continued to appear showed that none of the minor details 

 were neglected. Of his reforms in botanical classification we shall have 

 occasion later to speak more particularly. 



5. Witham. — Henry T.M.Witham, of Edinburgh, was the first of aline 

 of British investigators who looked beyond the external form of fossil 

 plants and undertook the systematic study of their internal structure. 

 It is for this reason rather than on account of the bulk of his works that 

 his name is inserted in this enumeration. He is well known for his de- 



"5 Notice sur des.v6g6taux fossiles traversant les couches du terrain houiller. Anuales 

 des Mines, Tome VI, 1821, pp. 359-370. 



