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INTRODUCTION
TO THE STUDY OF
PALÆONTOLOGICAL BOTANY
INTRODUCTION
TO THE STUDY OF
PALÆONTOLOGICAL BOTANY
BY
JOHN HUTTON BALFOUR, A.M. M.D. EDIN.
F.R.S., SEC. R.S.E., F.L.S.
PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE AND BOTANY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH,
REGIUS KEEPER OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN,
AND QUEEN'S BOTANIST FOR SCOTLAND
WITH FOUR LITHOGRAPHIC PLATES, AND UPWARDS OF
ONE HUNDRED WOODCUTS
EDINBURGH
ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
1872
Printed by R. & R. Clark, Edinburgh.
TO
PROF. HEINRICH ROBERT GOEPPERT, M.D.,
DIRECTOR OF THE BOTANIC GARDEN, BRESLAU;
ONE OF THE MOST EMINENT PALÆONTOLOGICAL
BOTANISTS OF EUROPE,
The following Treatise
IS DEDICATED, WITH BEST RESPECTS, BY HIS
OBLIGED FRIEND
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
The subject of Fossil Botany or Palæophytology has formeda part of the Course of Botany in the University of Edinburghfor the last twenty-five years, and the amount of time devotedto the exposition of it has increased. The recent foundationof a Chair of Geology and of a Falconer PalæontologicalFellowship in the University seems to require from theProfessors of Zoology and Botany special attention tothe bearings of their departments of science on the structureof the animals and plants of former epochs of the Earth'shistory. No one can be competent to give a correct decisionin regard to Fossils, unless he has studied thoroughly thepresent Fauna and Flora of the globe. To give a well-foundedopinion in regard to extinct beings, it is essentialthat the observer should be conversant with the conformationand development of the living ones now on the earth;with their habits, modes of existence and reproduction, themicroscopic structure of their tissues, their distribution, andtheir relation to soil, the atmosphere, temperature, andclimate.
There can be no doubt that to become a good FossilGeologist a student must begin with living animals andplants. The study of Geology must be shared