TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. Superscripts are denoted by ^ eg Lith^{rs} Edin^r. Basic fractions are displayed as ½ ⅓ ¼ etc; other fractions are shown in the form a/b, eg 3/11 or 13/(34×2). The caption for an illustration is displayed as a sidenote in the etext. It was shown as a page footnote in the original text. Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources. More detail can be found at the end of the book. INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF PALÆONTOLOGICAL BOTANY INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF PALÆONTOLOGICAL BOTANY BY JOHN HUTTON BALFOUR, A.M. M.D. EDIN. F.R.S., SEC. R.S.E., F.L.S. PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE AND BOTANY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, REGIUS KEEPER OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, AND QUEEN'S BOTANIST FOR SCOTLAND WITH FOUR LITHOGRAPHIC PLATES, AND UPWARDS OF ONE HUNDRED WOODCUTS EDINBURGH ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK 1872 _Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, _Edinburgh_. TO PROF. HEINRICH ROBERT GOEPPERT, M.D., DIRECTOR OF THE BOTANIC GARDEN, BRESLAU; ONE OF THE MOST EMINENT PALÆONTOLOGICAL BOTANISTS OF EUROPE, The following Treatise IS DEDICATED, WITH BEST RESPECTS, BY HIS OBLIGED FRIEND THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. The subject of Fossil Botany or Palæophytology has formed a part of the Course of Botany in the University of Edinburgh for the last twenty-five years, and the amount of time devoted to the exposition of it has increased. The recent foundation of a Chair of Geology and of a Falconer Palæontological Fellowship in the University seems to require from the Professors of Zoology and Botany special attention to the bearings of their departments of science on the structure of the animals and plants of former epochs of the Earth's history. No one can be competent to give a correct decision in regard to Fossils, unless he has studied thoroughly the present Fauna and Flora of the globe. To give a well-founded opinion in regard to extinct beings, it is essential that the observer should be conversant with the conformation and development of the living ones now on the earth; with their habits, modes of existence and reproduction, the microscopic structure of their tissues, their distribution, and their relation to soil, the atmosphere, temperature, and climate.