II. The Geographical Distribution of Plants 15 III. The Geological Record 39 IV. Preservation of Plants as Fossils 56 V. Ferns; their Distribution and Antiquity 71 VI. The Redwood and Mammoth Trees of California 95 VII. The Araucaria family 106 VIII. The Maiden Hair Tree 121 Bibliography 134 Index 139 * * * * * _Links with the Past_ ERRATUM Page 78. Omit lines 5, 6, and 7, from "One" to "but" inclusive. Transcriber Note: This correction has been applied. Here is the original sentence:-- One filmy species of Todea is represented in the British flora by _Todea radicans_ in the Killarney district of Ireland; but the maximum development of the genus is in New Zealand. * * * * * CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY: THE LONGEVITY OF TREES, ETC. 'Believe me who have tried. Thou wilt find something more in woods than in books. Trees and rocks will teach what thou canst not hear from a master.' St Bernard. The recent publication in the daily press of instances of human longevity under the heading 'Links with the Past' prompted a comparison between the length of time represented by the duration of a tree and the lifetime of a human being. The comparison of single lives suggested the further step of contrasting the antiquity of the oldest family-histories with the remoteness of the period to which it is possible to trace the ancestry of existing members of the plant kingdom. My primary object in these pages is not to deal with familiar cases of longevity in trees, but to consider in the first place some of the problems connected with the origin of the present British flora, and then to describe a few examples of different types of plants whose ancestors flourished during periods of the earth's history long ages before the advent of the human race.