56 HICK ; SOME RECENT ADVANCES IN BRITISH PALEOBOTANY. 
The description is based upon sections in the Williamson Collection, 
which had been previously referred to the genus Myelopteris, a 
synonym of Myeloxylon, Brongt. 
Conclusion. 
The record of progress set forth in the preceding pages may, I 
think, be justly described and without exaggeration, as a remarkable 
one, especially when it is borne in mind that it is a record of work 
done within the narrow limits of four years. Looking back at the 
history of British Palseobotany during the last half century, it may 
be doubted whether any previous period, of equal length, has pro- 
duced more good and solid work than this. Not only so, but it will 
be noticed that the advances made have not been restricted to one 
direction only, a point to which a few concluding words may appro- 
priately be devoted. 
In the first place it may be noted that the investigation of the 
structure and development of fossil plants has been made more 
searching and critical, and has been pursued along the same lines and 
by the light of the same morphological conceptions, as the investiga- 
tion of existing plants. This is a branch of the subject which, 
though less striking perhaps to palaeontologists in general, is of the 
highest possible importance, and is often indeed the indispensable 
condition for progi'ess in other directions. I regard it therefore, as 
of good omen for the future of British palaeobotany, that its methods 
and objects are being approximated, as far as circumstances will 
allow, to those which prevail in the investigation of living plants. 
In the next place considerable progress has been made by bring- 
ing together in their proper relations, as parts of one and the same 
organism, fi-agments of fossil plants which hitherto have been 
scattered and separated, the disjecta membra of organisms unknown. 
That there is much more to be done in this direction, no one can 
doubt who has any acquaintance with the subject, and the success 
already achieved should be an incentive to further effort. Such 
effort is all the more worth making since when succesful, the gi^ound 
is cleared of a number of generic and specific names, which it renders 
superfluous, and this of itself is a great gain. 
