VI. The caytoniales, a new group of angiospermous plants from the Jurassic Rocks of Yorkshire

Abstract

Abstract The study of fossil plants during the last quarter of a century has revealed a vast amount of information about the past history of many modern plant types. But while we have learned much about the Pteridophyta and Gymnosperms, singularly little information has been gained about the evolution of the plants now dominant in the vegetation of the world—the Angiosperms. In 1879 Darwin wrote the well-known lines to Hooker :—“ The rapid develop­ment, so far as we can judge, of all the higher plants within recent geological times is an abominable mystery. . . . I should like to see the whole problem solved'. Though 45 years have passed since this was written, we are still hopelessly in the dark about the origin and early evolution of this, one of the largest classes of living organisms. Interesting theories have been put forward as to the possible origin of the angiosperms, but these have been almost entirely unsupported by fossil evidence.