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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 possible which is
consistent with a concise style has always been adopted. The necessary
technical terms are either explained in the context or in the glossary at
the end of the book. The list of the more important authorities makes no
pretence of including all the references that might be consulted with
advantage, but merely indicates the more important volumes and papers
which anyone should read who wishes to follow up the subject.

All the illustrations are made for the book itself, and I am much obliged
to Mr. D. M. S. Watson, B.Sc., for the microphotos of plant anatomy which
adorn its pages. The figures and diagram are my own work.

This book is dedicated to college students, to the senior pupils of good
schools where the subject is beginning to find a place in the higher
courses of Botany, but especially to all those who take an interest in
plant evolution because it forms a thread in the web of life whose design
they wish to trace.

                                                           M. C. STOPES.

_December, 1909._




                                Contents


  Chap. Page
  I. Introductory                                                       1
  II. Various Kinds of Fossil Plants                                    6
  III. Coal, the most Important of Plant Remains                       22
  IV. The Seven Ages of Plant Life                                     33
  V. Stages in Plant Evolution                                         43
  VI. Minute Structure of Fossil Plants--
                Likenesses to Living Ones                              53
  VII.      "      " Differences from Living Ones                      69
  VIII. Past Histories of Plant Families--
                     (i) Flowering Plants                              79
  IX.      "      "      (ii) Higher Gymnosperms                       86
  X.      "      "      (iii) Bennettitales                           102
  XI.      "      "      (iv) The Cycads                              109
  XII.      "      "      (v) Pteridosperms                           114
  XIII.      "      "      (vi) The Ferns                             124
  XIV.      "      "      (vii) The Lycopods                          133
  XV.      "      "      (viii) The Horsetails                        145
  XVI.      "      "      (ix) Sphenophyllales                        153
  XVII.      "      "      (x) The Lower Plants                       161
  XVIII. Fossil Plants as Records of Ancient Countries                168
  XIX. Conclusion                                                     174


                                 APPENDIX
  I. List of Requirements for a Collecting Expedition                 183
  II. Treatment of Specimens                                          184
  III. Literature                                                     186
    Glossary                                                          188
    Footnotes                                                         193
    Index                                                             193




                              ANCIENT PLANTS




                               CHAPTER I
                              INTRODUCTORY


The lore of the plants which have successively clothed this ancient earth
during the thousands of centuries before men appeared is generally
ignored or tossed on one side with a contemptuous comment on the dullness
and "dryness" of fossil botany.

It is true that all that remains of the once luxuriant vegetation are
fragments preserved in stone, fragments which often show little of beauty
or value to the untrained eye;