INTERPRETATION OF FOSSIL PLANTS 
9 
ENVIRONMENTAL INTERPRETATION OF FOSSIL 
PLANTS 
By Prof. Edward W. Brrry 
Johns Hopkins University 
In its earliest developments the study of fossil plants consid¬ 
ered them purely as “fossils,” to be described and figured as dif¬ 
ferent types of Dendrolithes, Antholithes or Carpolithes. It was 
Adolph Brongniart who, like Zittel on the paleozoological side of 
paleontology, especially emphasized the fact that fossil plants 
were first of all organisms, had place in the natural system, were 
products of evolution, and were not mere medals of creation. 
Although the early workers, from the time of Scheuchzer on¬ 
ward, were ever ready to enlarge on the environments of the 
various fossil floras and their bearing on cosmogony, their treat¬ 
ment of these questions may be regarded as, speculative rather 
than scientific, and it may truthfully be said that all such writings 
even down to the year 1900, are, for the most part, entirely 
unreliable. 
In the interpretation of environments the evidence of fossil 
plants may be considered under two, more or less interrelated 
heads, namely, that depending on the botanical character of the 
fossils, or the kinds of plants and that based on the condition of 
their preservation. The latter criteria embrace not only the re¬ 
sults of the selective action of maceration and decay as shown 
by the kinds and nature of the plants escaping destruction, but 
also take into consideration the degree to which the material is 
broken, or incrusted, or reduced to undeterminable carbonaceous 
refuse (hdcksel). 
Among the lower plants, marine or fresh-water algae, which 
might be expected to furnish conclusive evidence of the marine 
