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                             ANCIENT PLANTS


             [Illustration: 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 have been made in
the course of the last five or six years in the realm of Fossil Botany
have largely altered the aspect of the subject and greatly widened its
horizon. Until comparatively recent times the rather narrow outlook and
the technical difficulties of the study made it one which could only be
appreciated by specialists. This has been gradually changed, owing to the
detailed anatomical work which it was found possible to do on the
carboniferous plants, and which proved to be of great botanical
importance. About ten years ago textbooks in English were written, and
the subject was included in the work of the honours students of Botany at
the Universities. To-day the important bearing of the results of this
branch of Science on several others, as well as its intrinsic value, is
so much greater, that anyone who is at all acquainted with general
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 this really
attractive subject before the non-specialist, and to do so is the aim of
the present volume. The two excellent English books which we possess,
viz. Seward's _Fossil Plants_ (of which the first volume only has
appeared, and that ten years ago) and Scott's _Studies in Fossil Botany_,
are ideal for advanced University students. But they are written for
students who are supposed to have a previous knowledge of technical
botany, and prove very hard or impossible reading for those who are
merely acquainted with Science in a general way, or for less advanced
students.

The inclusion of fossil types in the South Kensington syllabus for Botany
indicates the increasing importance attached to palaeobotany, and as vital
facts about several of those types are not to be found in a simply
written book, the students preparing for the examination must find some
difficulty in getting their information. Furthermore, Scott's book, the
only up-to-date one, does not give a complete survey of the subject, but
just selects the more important families to describe in detail.

Hence the present book was attempted for the double purpose of presenting
the most interesting discoveries and general conclusions of recent years,
and bringing together the subject as a whole.

The mass of information which has been collected about fossil plants is
now enormous, and the greatest difficulty in writing this little book has
been the necessity of eliminating much that is of great interest. The
author awaits with fear and trembling the criticisms of specialists, who
will probably find that many things considered by them as particularly
interesting or essential have been left out. It is hoped that they will
bear in mind the scope and aim of the book. I try to present only the
structure raised on the foundation of the accumulated details of
specialists' work, and not to demonstrate brick by brick the exposed
foundation.

Though the book is not written specially for them, it is probable that
University students may find it useful as a general survey of the whole
subject, for there is much in it that can only be learned otherwise by
reference to innumerable original monographs.

In writing this book all possible sources of information have been
consulted, and though Scott's _Studies_[1] naturally formed the
foundation of some of the chapters on Pteridophytes, the authorities for
all the general part and the recent discoveries are the numerous memoirs
published by many different learned societies here and abroad.

As these pages are primarily for the use of those who have no very
technical preliminary training, the simplest language