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Synopsis The object of this comprehensive treatise is to render important facts of Palaeobotany more accessible to the students of Botany and Geology and to suggest lines of further investigation in the subject. The subject of Palaeobotany does not readily lend itself to adequate treatment in a work intended for both geological and botanical students. The Botanist and Geologist are not always acquainted with each other's subject in a sufficient degree to appreciate the significance of Palaeobotany in its several points' of contact with Geology and recent Botany. The author has endeavoured to bear in mind the possibility that the following pages may be read by both non-geological and non-botanical students. It needs but a slight acquaintance with Geology for a Botanist to estimate the value of the most important applications of Palaeobotany; on the other hand, the bearing of fossil plants on the problems of phylogeny and descent cannot be adequately understood without fairly intimate knowledge of recent Botany.