ANCIENT PLANTS
Photo. of the specimen in Manchester Museum.THE STUMP OF A LEPIDODENDRON FROM THE COAL MEASURES
ANCIENT PLANTS
BEING A SIMPLE ACCOUNT OF THE
PAST VEGETATION OF THE EARTH
AND OF THE RECENT IMPORTANT
DISCOVERIES MADE IN THIS REALM
OF NATURE STUDY
BY
MARIE C. STOPES, D.Sc., Ph.D., F.L.S.
Lecturer in Fossil Botany, Manchester University
Author of “The Study of Plant Life for Young People”
LONDON
BLACKIE & SON, Limited, 50 OLD BAILEY, E.C.
GLASGOW AND BOMBAY
1910
Preface
The number and the importance of the discoveries which havebeen made in the course of the last five or six years in the realmof Fossil Botany have largely altered the aspect of the subject andgreatly widened its horizon. Until comparatively recent times therather narrow outlook and the technical difficulties of the studymade it one which could only be appreciated by specialists. Thishas been gradually changed, owing to the detailed anatomical workwhich it was found possible to do on the carboniferous plants, andwhich proved to be of great botanical importance. About tenyears ago textbooks in English were written, and the subject wasincluded in the work of the honours students of Botany at theUniversities. To-day the important bearing of the results of thisbranch of Science on several others, as well as its intrinsic value,is so much greater, that anyone who is at all acquainted withgeneral science, and more particularly with Botany and Geology,must find much to interest him in it.
There is no book in the English language which places thisreally attractive subject before the non-specialist, and to do sois the aim of the present volume. The two excellent Englishbooks which we possess, viz. Seward’s Fossil Plants (of whichthe first volume only has appeared, and that ten years ago) andScott’s Studies in Fossil Botany, are ideal for advanced Universitystudents. But they are written for students who are supposed tohave a previous knowledge of technical botany, and prove veryhard or impossible reading for those who are merely acquaintedwith Science in a general way, or for less advanced students.
The inclusion of fossil types in the South Kensington syllabusfor Botany indicates the increasing importance attached to palæobotany,and as vital facts about several of those types are not tobe found in a simply written book, the students preparing for theexamination must find some difficulty in getting their information.Furthermore, Scott’s book, the only up-to-date one, does not givea complete survey of the subject, but just selects the more importantfamilies to describe in detail.
Hence the present book was attempted for the double purposeof presenting the most interesting discoveries and general conclusions[vi]of recent years, and bringing together the subject as awhole.
The mass of information which has been collected about fossilplants is now enormous, and the greatest difficulty in writing thislittle book has been the necessity of eliminating muc