~Cambridge Natural Science Manuals.~ =BIOLOGICAL SERIES.= GENERAL EDITOR:—ARTHUR E. SHIPLEY, M.A. FELLOW AND TUTOR OF CHRIST’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. FOSSIL PLANTS. ~London~: C. J. CLAY AND SONS, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, AVE MARIA LANE, AND H. K. LEWIS, 136, GOWER STREET, W.C. [Illustration] ~Glasgow~: 263, ARGYLE STREET. ~Leipzig~: F. A. BROCKHAUS. ~New York~: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. ~Bombay~: E. SEYMOUR HALE. [Illustration: TREE STUMPS IN A CARBONIFEROUS FOREST. VICTORIA PARK, GLASGOW.] FOSSIL PLANTS FOR STUDENTS OF BOTANY AND GEOLOGY BY A. C. SEWARD, M.A., F.G.S. ST JOHN’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, LECTURER IN BOTANY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. VOL. I. CAMBRIDGE: AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 1898 [_All Rights reserved._] ~Cambridge~: PRINTED BY J. AND C. F. CLAY, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. PREFACE. In acceding to Mr Shipley’s request to write a book on Fossil Plants for the Cambridge Natural History Series, I am well aware that I have undertaken a work which was considered too serious a task by one who has been called a “founder of modern Palaeobotany.” I owe more than I am able to express to the friendship and guidance of the late Professor Williamson; and that I have attempted a work to which he consistently refused to commit himself, requires a word of explanation. My excuse must be that I have endeavoured to write a book which may render more accessible to students some of the important facts of Palaeobotany, and suggest lines of investigation in a subject which Williamson had so thoroughly at heart.