29 



in 1828.* This was very soon followed by his larger work, 

 "Ifistoire des vegetaux fossiles" issued in 1828-48. Brong- 

 niart pursued the same method as Cuvier and Lamarck, viz : 

 the comparison of fossils with living forms, and his results 

 were of great importance. In his "Tableau des genres vegetaux 

 fossiles" etc., published in Paris in 1849, lie gives the classifica- 

 tion and distribution of the genera of fossil plants, and traces 

 out the historical progression of vegetable life on the globe, as 

 he had done to a great extent in his previous works. He 

 shows that the cryptogamic forms prevailed in the primary 

 formations ; the conifers and cycads in the secondary, and the 

 higher forms in the Tertiary, while four fifths of living plants 

 are exogens. 



In England, Lindley and ITutton published, in 1831-37, a 

 valuable work in three volumes, entitled, " Fossil Flora of 

 Great Britain." This work was ilmstcafced by many accurate 

 plates, in which the plants of the coal formation were especially 

 represented. Henry Witham also published two works in 1831 

 and 1833, in which he treated especially of the internal struc- 

 ture of fossil plants. "Antediluvian Phytology," by Artis, 

 was published in London in 1838. Bowerbank's "History of 

 the Fossil Fruits and Seeds of the London Clay," appeared in 

 1843. Hooker's memoir " On the Vegetation of the Cai - bon- 

 iferous Period as compared with that of the present day," pub- 

 lished in 1848, was an important contribution to the science. 

 Bunbury, Williamson, and others, also published various 

 papers on fossil plants. This branch of Palaeontology, how- 

 ever, attracted much less attention in England, than on the 

 Continent. 



In Germany, the study of fossil plants dates back to the 

 beginning of the century. Von Schlotheim, a pupil of Wer- 

 ner, published in 1804 an illustrated volume on this subject. 

 A more important work was that of Count Sternberg, issued 

 in 1820-38, and illustrated with excellent plates. Cotta in 

 1832 published a book with the title, "Die Dendrolithen" in 



* Prodrome d'une hisloire des vegetaux fossiles. 8vo. Paris, 182S. 



