The book consists of 25 chapters. The initial five chapters
introduce paleobotanical history, principles of geologic age,
types of plant fossils, and the techniques employed to study
them. Chapter 6 deals with Precambrian paleobotany and chapter 7
with the classification of fossil plants. Major groups of fossil
plants are individually treated in chapters 8-19 and 22.
Gondwana and Tertiary floras of India are reviewed briefly in
chapters 20 and 21. Applied paleobotany is discussed in the
final three chapters (23-25). Paleontologists throughout the
world have a great interest in the origin of angiosperms and in
fossil angiosperm records. A huge amount of literature on new
discoveries has been published in the last two decades, for
example, Triassic angiospermid pollen from Arizona (e.g., Review
of paleobotany and Palynology, 1988, 55: 337-356) considered to
have an affinity with the family Araceae; or the Early
Cretaceous origin of Hamamelidaceae based on the discovery of
Hamamelidalean Cretaceous fossil flower