Samuel Joseph Mackie

../../ (1862)

Summary

Samuel Joseph Mackie,  ../../ (1862)

“ The greatest mischief to fossil botany has arisen from the fact that many, if not most of our fossil species, have been named and described by men who were not botanists; and as so little is known of the vegetable remains preserved in the English chalk, we refrain from giving, and should hesitate long before we assigned, botanical characters to any new form from that formation, especially when so vaguely preserved as those before us. ”
Source: Wikisource

Samuel Joseph Mackie,  ../../ (1862)

“ And there they will lie and rot, possibly, if their owners are not bold enough to confess their ignorance and ask for information. For them our pages offer a means of inquiry which they do not possess for us. Anonymously they can ask their questions; openly we must ask ours. These chalk fruits puzzle us, we confess it. ”
Source: Wikisource

Samuel Joseph Mackie,  ../../ (1862)

“ These have been in undisputed use for very many years, not because they do not require any modification to render the accordance more definite and more rigidly corresponding to the accumulation of information which has been going on since their introduction, but chiefly because chalk,—at least English chalk,—is white or of a pale grey, which when the beds are in a dry state is so nearly white, that ordinary eyes do not see the difference, and ordinary collectors do not care about it so long as they can get hold of a fine fossil. ”
Source: Wikisource

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