FOSSIL PLANTS 97 
very imperfect ; when we think of the perishable 
nature of plants we could hardly expect them to be 
otherwise. But such records as have been found 
prove that plants have become more highly de- 
veloped as the ages have advanced. First, there 
were seaweeds, fungi, mosses, and ferns, which are 
lowly forms of plants ; these were followed by plants 
bearing naked seeds, such as the pines and cycads, 
and these were succeeded in later ages by palms, 
lilies, and the plants which 
bear beautiful and wonderful 
flowers. 
There can be no doubt that 
seaweeds flourished in Cam- 
brian times, and _ possibly 
earlier. A fossil has been 
found which has received the 
name Oldhamia (after an Irish 
geologist, Oldham). This is 
thought by some to have been ag 39 — Orpnamra 
a seaweed, although others RADIATA, 
think it may have been an 
animal. But if we are in doubt as to the real 
nature of Oldhamia we must conclude that an age 
which could produce shellfish and trilobites could 
also produce seaweeds and other lowly plants. The 
Silurian rocks have yielded undoubted remains of 
seaweeds, and it is in strata of this age we may find 
the earliest traces of land plants, in the form of 
Lycopods, or Club-mosses, and early ferns. Such 
fossil remains as are found of these plants occur 
in broken portions of stems and branches, which 
enable specialists to form some idea of the complete 
13 
