Fossil Flora of-the Coal Measures of Brazil 
HISTORICAL REVIEW 
The number of fossil plants hitherto known from Brazil is not 
ereat; yet these have always been regarded with much interest on 
account, in earlier days, of their distributional significance as standing 
for the occurrence of their respective types in the South American con- 
tinent, and, latterly, of the remarkable floral associations which the 
species, though few, seemed to indicate. That after over forty years of 
exploitation so little should be known of the flora of the Brazilian coal 
fields is explained only by the absence of resident paleeobotanists, not 
only from Brazil, but also from all South America. The present rapid 
development of scientific as well as of industrial pursuits in the 
republic will doubtless lead to the unfolding of its palcsontological 
wealth as well as the development of its great economic resources. 
The first plant fossil to be definitely made known from Brazi) 
was the Psaronius brasiliensis, a figure of a small intracortical 
fragment of which, accompanied by Brongniart’s manuscript name, 
was published in 1836 by Unger in Martius great work on the palms (1) 
of Brazil. 
The species was first described from another more complete 
example, by Brongniart (2) at a meeting of the Botanical Society of 
France in 1872, on the occasion of the visit of Dom Pedro to the French 
capital. This very interesting Permo-Carboniferous type of tree-fern 
trunk, which is remarkable as the representative of a group of Psaronii 
especially characterized by having the fronds borne in four rows or ver- 
tical series, has since been treated with great histological perfection by 
Zeiller (3). From the researches of Count Solms-Laubach (4) and Derby 
(5) it appears that the fragment in the Paris Museum, which served as 
(4) Hist. Nat. Palmaramn, vol. 1, p. LXX, pl. z-ol. 4, fig. 4. 
(2) Bull, Soc. Bot. Fr.. vol. XIX, p. 6. 
(3) Fl. foss. bassing houill. et perm. Autun et Epinac, pt., 1, 1890, 2.246, pl. XXI. 
(4) Festschr. zu P. Ascherson’s siebzigsten Geburlstage, Berlin, 1904, p. 18. 
(5) Jornal do Comercio, Rio de dane'ro, 13 March, 41905, p. 1. (Um fossil intcres- 
sante do Museu Nacional). 
