Observations on fossil vegetables : accompanied by representations of their internal structure, as seen through the microscope / by Henry Witham.

  • Witham, Henry Thornton Maire, 1779-1844.
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on fossil vegetables : accompanied by representations of their internal structure, as seen through the microscope / by Henry Witham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Deeply impressed with this idea, I feel most anxious to convince those who arc desirous of forwarding this difficult and much neglected department of botanical geology, of the necessity of minute examinations, and repeated comparisons of the different sections of plants belonging to both classes. In some, they will find the vegetable structure of these stems retaining all its original beauty; while in others, owing to the different states of de- composition, they will perceive numerous and violent distortions. In many of the stems, they will find hut a mere remnant of structure, the other parts being filled up generally by percolation with foreign matter, often arranged so beautifully and symmetrically, as at first sight to induce a belief that the original vegetable structure remains unimpaired. In such cases, the ob- server will require to repeat his observations, and extend his comparisons, before he can arrive at any safe or satisfactory conclusion. When he has become acquainted with a few general arrangements, by which nature has characterized the groups into which she has thrown her productions, the observer finds that the cloud which before darkened his understanding is gradually dispelled. But this result can be obtained only by the most minute and often repeated microscopic observations and com- parisons, not only of fossil plants with each other, but of fossil and recent species together. My principal object in presenting this work to the public, is to im- press upon geologists the advantage of attending more particularly to the in- timate organization of fossil plants; and should I succeed in exciting their attention to this hitherto neglected study, I should feel a degree of satisfac- tion which will amply repay my labour. The pleasure which I have de- rived from my investigations, will be heightened by the reflection, that I have communicated their results to my fellow labourers. At the same time, I may, without presumption, hope, that the representations which I here offer of the organic structure of fossil and recent vegetables, will tend to throw some light on the nature of plants hitherto seen in a very obscure manner. If the attention lately paid to the study of fossil conchology has been so highly instrumental in clearing up the many doubts respecting the different a 2