INTRODUCTION 3 



not say that the estimation of this evidence is in itself 

 beset with the greatest difficulties, difficulties which those 

 best appreciate who have themselves worked at fossil 

 remains. The construction of a pedigree of the 

 Vegetable Kingdom is a pious desire, which will 

 certainly not be realised in our time ; all we can hope 

 to do is to make some very small contributions to the 

 work. Yet we may at least gather up some frag- 

 ments from past chapters in the history of plants, and 

 extend our view beyond the narrow limits of the present 

 epoch, for the flora now living is after all nothing but 

 one particular stage in the evolution of the Vegetable 

 Kingdom. 



There is a phrase in the introduction to Count 

 Solms-Laubach's admirable Fossil Botany^ which I 

 think very appropriate to our purpose. The author 

 says that our object in studying fossil plants is " the 

 completion of the natural system." That is the point 

 of view which we shall take up in this book. I shall 

 endeavour to bring before the reader those discoveries 

 in fossil botany which already contribute something 

 towards the completion of the natural system. If this 

 be our purpose, it is evident that only well-characterised 

 fossils have any interest for us. A specimen which 

 may be an Alga, or perhaps a worm-track, or possibly 

 even a wave-mark, is no doubt a curiosity, but will not 

 help us much towards the end in view. Such specimens 

 we shall leave severely alone ! 



Fossil botany at one time incurred a certain degree 

 of not wholly undeserved contempt, from the exces- 

 sive prominence given to doubtful objects, from which 

 1 Introduction to Fossil Botany, English edition, 1892. 



