WABU.J BIOGKAPHICAL SKETCHES. 371 



and metallurgy, which naturally led him into paleontology, for which he 

 had a strong attachment. In 1801 he published in HoflPs "Magazin" 

 (I, pp. 76-95), at Leipzig, his "Abhandlung liber die Krauter-Abdriicke 

 im Schieferthon und Sandstein der Steinkohlen-Formation," and in 1804 

 his "Beschreibungmerkwiirdiger Krauter-Abdriicke uud Pflanzen-Ver- 

 steinerungen, ein Beitragzur Flora der Vorwelt " (I. Abtheilung), with 

 fourteen plates, illustrating by accurately drawn figures a large number 

 of Carboniferous plants. In 1805 he was made councilor director and 

 in 1820 president of the College Cameral of Saxe-Gotha, and in 1822 

 director of the Museum at Gotha. In 1820 he published at Gotha "Die 

 Petrefactenknnde auf ihren jetztigen Standpunkt," the first Heft of 

 which really constitutes the second part (Abtheilung) of the work last 

 mentioned, and the number of plates here reaches twenty-nine, all but 

 the last two of which are devoted to fossil plants. The remainder of 

 this work relates to animal remains, as does also all but Part III of the 

 "Nachtrag" to the work, which appeared two years later. 



These works, though few in number, were systematic and conscien- 

 tious, and constituted by far the most important contribution yet made 

 to the knowledge of the primordial vegetation of the globe. They form 

 the earliest strictly scientific record we have in paleobotany. 



3. Sternberg. — Kaspar Maria, Graf von Sternberg, though contempo- 

 rary with Schlotheim, is mentioned after him in this enumeration, first, 

 because his first contribution to paleobotany' was made three years later 

 than Schlotheim's first, and, secondly, because his great work on this 

 subject was not completed until after Schlotheim's works were all pub- 

 lished and in his hands for use and criticism, and, in fact, not until after 

 Schlotheim's death. 



Sternberg was born at Eegensbnrg in 1761 and died at Prague in 

 1838. He was an assiduous collector, not only of specimens but of 

 books, and when in 1822 he was made president of the Bohemian Na- 

 tional Museum he turned over to it all his collections, including 4,000 

 volumes of rare works. His specialty was botany, on which he wrote 

 many memoirs, but scattered through the different periodicals of the 

 time are to be found some dozen papers relating to fossil plants. The 

 most important of all his works was his " Versuch einer geognostich- 

 botanischen Darstellung der Flora der Vorwelt," which appeared in 

 numbers from 1820 to 1838, and was translated into French by the 

 Comte de Bray.* To the eighth number, 1838, was appended Corda's 

 " Skizzen zur vergleichenden Phytotomie vor- und jetztweltlicher 

 Pflanzen." In this work that of all his predecessors, including Schlot- 

 heim, is reviewed, and considerable progress made toward the correct 

 interpretation of the record, so far as then known, of vegetable paleon- 

 tology^ 



^ Notice sur les analogues des plantes fossiles. Annales du Museum d'histoire natu- 

 reUe, 1804, Vol. V, pp. 462-470, pi. 31, 32. 



*Essai d'un expose g^ognostioo-botanique de la flora du monde primitif. Eatis- 

 bonne, 1820-1826, fol., 64 pi. 



