Notes on the Geological History of 
Monocotyledons. 
BY 
A. C. SEWARD, M.A., F.G.S., 
University Lecturer in Botany, Cambridge. 
With Plate XIV. 
HERE are few more interesting problems from a 
JL botanist’s point of view than the evolution of angio- 
spermous plants. It is not proposed in the present contri- 
bution to discuss the lines of development of the Monocoty- 
ledons and Dicotyledons, or to take up the question of a 
separate or common origin of these two groups ; but merely 
to examine the evidence of palaeobotany as to the geological 
antiquity of Monocotyledons. The records of fossil Angio- 
sperms are in many cases entirely untrustworthy, and stand 
in need of careful revision. It is often a matter of primary 
importance to ascertain the relative age, or first appearance 
in time, of different groups of plants ; but unfortunately the 
statements in palaeobotanical literature are frequently so 
conflicting and based on such insufficient evidence, that it 
is by no means easy — in some cases impossible — to arrive 
at any definite conclusion. It will not, therefore, be by any 
means a superfluous task to attempt to critically investigate 
the records of the rocks with reference to the earlier history 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. X. No. XXXVIII. June, 1896.] 
P 
