[Illustration: DIAGRAM OF THE HISTORY OF PLANTS IN GEOLOGICAL TIME. (Adapted from Ward.)]
SIR J. WILLIAM DAWSON C. M. G., LL. D., F. R. S., &c.
Copyright, 1888, By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
The object of this work is to give, in a connected form, a summary of the development of the vegetable kingdom in geological time.
To the geologist and botanist the subject is one of importance with reference to their special pursuits, and one on which it has not been easy to find any convenient manual of information. It is hoped that its treatment in the present volume will also be found sufficiently simple and popular to be attractive to the general reader.
In a work of so limited dimensions, detailed descriptions cannot be given, except occasionally by way of illustration; but references to authorities will be made in foot-notes, and certain details, which may be useful to collectors and students, will be placed in notes appended to the chapters, so as not to encumber the text.
The illustrations of this work are for the most part original; but some of them have previously appeared in special papers of the author.
Preliminary Ideas of Geological Chronology and of the Classification of Plants 1
Vegetation of the Laurentian and Early Paleozoic--Questions as to Algæ 8
The Erian or Devonian Forests--Origin of Petroleum--The Age of Acrogens and Gymnosperms 45
The Carboniferous Flora--Culmination of the Acrogens--Formation of Coal 110
The Flora of the Early Mesozoic--Reign of Pines and Cycads 175
The Reign of Angiosperms in the Later Cretaceous and Early Tertiary or Kainozoic 191
Plants from the Tertiary to the Modern Period 219
General Laws of Origin and Migrations of Plants--Relations of Recent and Fossil Floras 237
I. Comparative View of Paleozoic Floras 273
II. Heer's Latest Statements on the Greenland Flora 281
Table of Chronology of Plants (Frontispiece.) Protannularia Harknessii 21 Nematophyton Logani (three Figures) 22, 23 Trail of King-Crab 28 Trail of Carboniferous Crustacean 28 Rusichnites 29 Palæophycus 30 Astropolithon 31 Carboniferous Rill-mark 33 Cast of Shrinkage Cracks 34 Cone-in-cone 36 Buthotrephis 37 Silurian Vegetation 40 Erian Plants 49 Protosalvinia 54 Ptilophyton (two Figures) 62, 63 Psilophyton (two Figures) 64, 66 Sphenophyllum 65 Lepidodendron 66 Various Ferns 72, 73 Archæopteris 74 Caulopteris 75 Megalopteris 76 Calamites 77 Asterophyllites 78 Dadoxylon 79 Cordaites 81 Erian Fruits 82 Foliage from the Coal-formation 111 Sigillariæ (five Figures) 112-114 Stigmariæ (two Figures) 115 Vegetable Tissues 117 Coals and Erect Trees (two Figures) 118, 119 Lepidodendron 120 Lepidophloios 121 Asterophyllites, &c. 122 Calamites (five Figures) 123-125 Ferns of the Coal-formation (six Figures) 126-129 Noeggerathia dispar 130 Cordaites 131 Fruits of Cordaites, &c. 132 Conifers of the Coal-formation (four Species) 135 Trigonocarpum 136 Sternbergia 137 Walchia imbricatula 138 Foliage of the Jurassic Period 177 Podozamites 178 Salisburia 180 Sequoia 181 Populus primæva 191 Stercalia and Laurophyllum 194 Vegetation of the Cretaceous Period 195 Platanus 198 Protophyllum 199 Magnolia 200 Liriodendron (two Figures) 201 Brasenia 207 Gaylussaccia resinosa 228 Populus balsamifera 229 Fucus 230