Fossil Botany. 21 



FOSSIL BOTANY 



The progress of Geology has developed the elements of 

 what may be considered a new science — that of Fossil Botany. 

 The splendid work of Count Sternberg, on the continent of 

 Europe, and those of Hutton and Lindley in England, together 

 with several others of less note, have created, not only among 

 the learned, but also among all classes of the educated, an 

 interest in the Flora of the ancient world. Nor can any recent 

 book on Geology, now a common study in this country, be 

 understood and appreciated without a knowledge of the 

 elements of this science. 



The subject is indeed highly curious and interesting to any 

 inquiring mind. Who can read accounts, or examine the 

 remains, of vegetables, sometimes of colossal proportions, 

 differing entirely in appearance, and, in some respects, in 

 structure, from any now growing on the earth, without a de- 

 sire to learn more concerning them ? For the acquirement of 

 such knowledge, the Botanist will be conscious that the Sexual 

 System, or Linnaean method of classification, must be insuffi- 

 cient — since the flowers and other parts on which the Artificial 

 classes are founded, are, in most cases, entirely wanting, only 

 the trunks, limbs and leaves being preserved. The Natural 

 System therefore can only be employed, and this to but a 

 limited extent, since trunks only, without the vestige of leaf, 

 flower or fruit, have occurred in great abundance. In such 

 instances the structure of the interior, the external appearance 

 of the bark, the marks left by the falling off of the leaves, the 

 branching of the top, when this can be found, are all that serve 

 as data on which to base an opinion as to the class or family 

 to which the tree belonged. In this country, if little interest 

 is felt on this subject, it is only because there has yet been 

 published no popular exposition of the objects of Fossil Botany, 

 or the methods by which it is investigated. We therefore propose 

 to dedicate a few pages of this periodical to a series of articles on 

 this science, for which we have not a doubt of ultimately re- 

 ceiving the thanks of our readers. 



