Fossil plants, Vol. 2: A text-book for students of botany and geology

About this book

Fossil Plants, Volume 2 is a scholarly textbook aimed at students of botany and geology, continuing the systematic treatment begun in the first volume. The author, A. C. Seward, opens with a candid preface that explains the work’s delayed publication and outlines the ambitious scope he originally envisioned, a three‑volume series covering the whole plant kingdom. He acknowledges that recent discoveries, especially concerning ferns and extinct gymnosperms, have reshaped the field, and he details how the second volume will focus on lycopsids, ferns, and related groups while reserving seed‑bearing plants for a forthcoming third volume. The extensive table of contents reveals a meticulous chapter‑by‑chapter examination of fossil taxa, complete with references to illustrations drawn from museum collections and contributions from numerous contemporary botanists.

The text reflects the early‑20th‑century academic style of a Cambridge botany professor, combining formal prose with exhaustive taxonomic detail and frequent acknowledgments of colleagues and institutions. Its tone is methodical rather than narrative, making it most suitable for readers with a serious interest in paleobotany, historical geology, or the development of botanical science. Those who appreciate dense, reference‑rich works, students, researchers, and collectors of historic scientific literature, will find Seward’s careful descriptions and extensive illustration list both informative and a window into the scholarly practices of his era.

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Fossil Plants, Volume 2, by A. C. Seward—A Project Gutenberg eBook PREFACE I REGRET that pressure of other work has prevented the completion of this Volume within a reasonable time since the publication of Volume I. Had Volume II been written ten years ago, the discoveries made in the course of the last decade would have given an out-of-date character to much of the subject-matter. It is more especially in regard to the Ferns and the extinct members of the Gymnosperms that our outlook has been materially altered by recent contributions to Palaeobotany. It is, however, some satisfaction to be able to add that recent progress has been relatively slight in that part of the subject dealt with in the first volume. The original intention was to complete the whole work in two volumes. …

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