“But particular care ought to be had not to consult or take relations from any but those who appear to have been both long conversant in these affairs, and likewise persons of Sobriety, Faithfulness and Discretion, to avoid the being misled and imposed upon either by falsehood, or the ignorance, credulity, and fancifulness, that some of these people are but too obnoxious unto.” John Woodward, 1728.
The scientific study of fossil plants dates from a comparatively recent period, and palaeobotany has only attained a real importance in the eyes of botanists and geologists during the last few decades of the present century. It would be out of place, in a short treatise like the present, to attempt a detailed historical sketch, or to give an adequate account of the gradual rise and development of this modern science. An excellent Sketch of Palaeobotany has recently been drawn up by Prof. Lester Ward[1], of the United States Geological Survey, and an earlier historical retrospect may be found in the introduction to an important work by an eminent German palaeobotanist, the late Prof. Göppert[2]. In the well-known work by Parkinson on The Organic Remains of a Former World[3] there is much interesting information as to the early history of our knowledge of fossil plants, as well as a good exposition of the views held at the beginning of this century.
FOSSIL PLANTS AND THE FLOOD.
As a means of bringing into relief the modern development of the science of fossil plants, we may briefly pass in review some of the earlier writers, who have concerned themselves in a greater or less degree with a descriptive or speculative treatment of the records of a past vegetation. In the early part of the present century, and still more in the eighteenth century, the occurrence of fossil plants and animals in the earth’s crust formed the subject of animated, not to say acrimonious, discussion. The result was that many striking and ingenious theories were formulated as to the exact manner of formation of fossil remains, and the part played by the waters of the deluge in depositing fossiliferous strata. The earlier views on fossil vegetables are naturally bound up with the gradual evolution of geological science. It is from Italy that we seem to have the first glimmering of scientific views; but we are led to forget this early development of more than three hundred years ago, when we turn to the writings of English and other authors of the eighteenth century. “Under these white banks by the roadside,” as a writer on Verona has expressed it, “was born, like a poor Italian gipsy, the modern science of geology.” Early in the sixteenth century the genius of Leonardo da Vinci[4] compelled him to adopt a reasonable explanation of the occurrence of fossil shells in rocks far above the present sea-level. Another Italian writer, Fracastaro, whose attention was directed to this matter by the discovery of numerous shells brought to light by excavations at Verona, expressed his belief in the organic nature of the remains, and went so far as to call in question the Mosaic deluge as a satisfactory explanation of the deposition of fossil-bearing strata.
The partial recognition by some observers of the true nature of fossils marks the starting point of more rational views. The admission that fossils were not mere sports of nature, or the result of some wonderful ‘vis lapidifica,’ was naturally followed by numerous speculations as to the manner in which the remains of animals and plants came to be embedded in rocks above the sea-level. For a long time, the ‘universal flood’ was held responsible by nearly all writers for the existence of fossils in ancient sediments. Dr John Woodward, in his Essay toward a Natural History of the Earth, propounded the somewhat revolutionary theory, that “the whole terrestrial globe was taken all to pieces and dissolved at the Deluge, the particles of stone, marble, and all solid fossils dissevered, taken up into the water, and there sustained together with sea-shells and other animal and vegetable bodies: and that the present earth consists, and was formed out of that promiscuous mass of sand, earth, shells, and the rest falling down again, and subsiding from the water[5].” In common with other writers, he endeavoured to fix the exact date of the flood by means of fossil plants. Speaking of some hazel-nuts, which were found in a Cheshire moss pit, he draws attention to their unripened condition, and adds: “The deluge came forth at the end of May, when nuts are not ripe.” As additional evidence, he cites the occurrence of “Pine cones in their vernal state,” and of some Coal-Measure fossils which he compares with Virginian Maize, “tender, young, vernal, and not ripened[6].” Woodward (1665–1728) was Professor of Physic in Gresham College; he bequeathed his geological collections to the University of Cambridge, and founded the Chair which bears his name.
Another writer, Mendes da Costa, in a paper in the Philosophical Transactions for 1758, speaks of the impressions of “ferns and reed-like plants” in the coal-beds, and describes some fossils (Sigillaria and Stigmaria) as probably unknown forms of plant life[7].
Here we have the suggestion that in former ages there were plants which differed from those of the present age. Discussing the nature of some cones (Lepidostrobi) from the ironstone of Coalbrookdale in Shropshire, he concludes: “I firmly believe these bodies to be of vegetable origin, buried in the strata of the Earth at the time of the universal deluge recorded by Moses.” Scheuchzer of Zurich, the author of one of the earliest works on fossil plants and a “great apostle of the Flood Theory,” figures and describes a specimen as an ear of corn, and refers to its size and general appearance as pointing to the month of May as the time of the deluge[8]. Another English writer, Dr Parsons, in giving an account of the well-known ‘fossil fruits and other bodies found in the island of Sheppey,’ is disposed to dissent from Woodward’s views as to the time of the flood. He suggests that the fact of the Sheppey fruits being found in a perfectly ripe condition, points to the autumn as the more probable time for the occurrence of the deluge[9].
In looking through the works of the older writers, and occasionally in the pages of latter-day contributors, we frequently find curiously shaped stones, mineral markings on rock surfaces, or certain fossil animals, described as fossil plants. In Plot’s Natural History of Oxfordshire, published in 1705, a peculiarly shaped stone, probably a flint, is spoken of as one of the ‘Fungi lethales non esculenti[10]’; and again a piece of coral[11] is compared with a ‘Bryony root broken off transversely.’ On the other hand, that we may not undervalue the painstaking and laborious efforts of those who helped to lay the foundations of modern science, we may note that such authors as Scheuchzer and Woodward were not misled by the moss-like or dendritic markings of oxide of manganese on the surface of rocks, which are not infrequently seen to-day in the cabinets of amateurs as specimens of fossil plants.
The oldest figures of fossil plants from English rocks which are drawn with any degree of accuracy are those of Coal-Measure ferns and other plants in an important work by Edward Lhwyd published at Oxford in 1760[12].
Passing beyond these prescientific speculations, brief reference may be made to some of the more eminent pioneers of palaeobotany. The Englishman Artis[13] deserves mention for the quality rather than the quantity of his contributions to Palaeozoic botany; and among American authors Steinhauer’s[14] name must hold a prominent place in the list of those who helped to found this branch of palaeontology. Among German writers, Schlotheim stands out prominently as one who first published a work on fossil plants which still remains an important book of reference. Writing in 1804, he draws attention to the neglect of fossils from a scientific standpoint; they are simply looked upon, he says, as “unimpeachable documents of the flood[15].” His book contains excellent figures of many Coal-Measure plants, and we find in its pages occasional comparisons of fossil species with recent plants of tropical latitudes. Among the earlier authors whose writings soon become familiar to the student of fossil plants, reference must be made to Graf Sternberg, who was born three years before Schlotheim, but whose work came out some years later than that of the latter. His great contribution to Fossil Botany entitled Versuch einer geognostisch-botanischen Darstellung der Flora der Vorwelt, was published in several parts between the years 1820 and 1838; it was drawn up with the help of the botanist Presl, and included a valuable contribution by Corda[16]. In addition to descriptions and numerous figures of plants from several geological horizons, this important work includes discussions on the formation of coal, with observations on the climates of past ages.