2 STUDIES IN FOSSIL BOTANY 



Botany, on its morphological side, consists in the ap- 

 plication of the comparative method to the study of 

 plants, with a view to the determination of their relation- 

 ships. In these days, most of us, when we speak of 

 relationship among organisms, mean to imply a real 

 affinity, that is to say, a blood-relationship, so that, on 

 this view, the ultimate object of morphological inquiry is 

 to build up the genealogical tree of the organic world. 

 Many attempts at the construction of genealogical 

 trees have been failures, but still this is the object, 

 however remote, which we have ultimately before us 

 when we devote ourselves to morphological studies. 



Existing organisms are related to each other more 

 or less as brothers or cousins are related. All the 

 species living at the present day belong, as it were, 

 to the present generation. By the study of living 

 organisms alone, it must necessarily be a matter very 

 much of conjecture to decide which of them, in any 

 given group, stands nearest to the old family stock. As 

 regards some of the main taxonomic divisions, it is 

 true, there can be no doubt. We should all agree, for 

 example, that the Green Algae are, on the whole, much 

 more primitive than the Flowering Plants ; but when we 

 come to more difficult questions, such, for example, as 

 the relative antiquity of the various families of Vascular 

 Cryptogams, we find the most different opinions pre- 

 vailing, and the conclusion at which we may arrive is 

 largely a matter of subjective interpretation. 



The only direct evidence which is possible in 

 questions of descent among plants is from the ancient 

 plants themselves. Fortunately, the rocks afford us a 

 considerable amount of such direct evidence. I need 



