Biological Series.
FELLOW AND TUTOR OF CHRIST’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE,
AVE MARIA LANE,
AND
H. K. LEWIS,
136, GOWER STREET, W.C.
Leipzig: F. A. BROCKHAUS.
New York: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Bombay: E. SEYMOUR HALE.
FOSSIL PLANTS
ST JOHN’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE,
LECTURER IN BOTANY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE.
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
1898
Cambridge:
PRINTED BY J. AND C. F. CLAY,
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
PREFACE.
IN acceding to Mr Shipley’s request to write a book on Fossil Plants for the Cambridge Natural History Series, I am well aware that I have undertaken a work which was considered too serious a task by one who has been called a “founder of modern Palaeobotany.” I owe more than I am able to express to the friendship and guidance of the late Professor Williamson; and that I have attempted a work to which he consistently refused to commit himself, requires a word of explanation. My excuse must be that I have endeavoured to write a book which may render more accessible to students some of the important facts of Palaeobotany, and suggest lines of investigation in a subject which Williamson had so thoroughly at heart.
The subject of Palaeobotany does not readily lend itself to adequate treatment in a work intended for both geological and botanical students. The Botanist and Geologist are not always acquainted