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Growth of Palaeobotany in Relation to Biostratigraphy of India

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Growth of Palaeobotany in Relation to Biostratigraphy of India TWENTYSIXTH SIR ALBERT CHARLES SEWARD MEMORIAL LECTURE GROWTH OF PALAEOBOTANY IN RELATION TO BIOSTRATIGRAPHY OF INDIA BY PROFESSOR A. K. GHOSH Department of Botany, University of Cl!culta, Calcutta-700 001, India Published by BIRBAL SAHNI INSTITUTE OF PALAEOBOTANY LUCKNOW ISSUED 1979 GROWTH OF PALAEOBOTANY IN RELATION TO BIOSTRATIGRAPHY OF INDIA BY PROFESSOR A. K. GHOSH Department of Botany, University of Calcutta, Calcutta-700 001, India Published by BIRBAL SAHNI INSTITUTE OF PALAEOBOTANY LUCKNOW ISSUED 1979 TWENTYSIXTH SIR ALBERT CHARLES SEWARD MEMORIAL LECTURE GROWTH OF PALAEOBOTANY IN RELATION TO BIOSTRATIGRAPHY OF INDIA PROFESSOR A. K. GHOSH Department of Botany. University of Calcutta, Calcutta-700 001, India INTRODUCTION the deep debt of gratitude that they owe LBERT Charles Seward was such to Seward. a distinguished palaeobotanist-cum­ When I was an undergraduate student A geologist that it is a privilege to be in Geology at the Presidency College, asked to deliver a lecture associated with Calcutta in the mid-twenties, I was for the his name. Judging from the galaxy of first time introduced to Sir Albert through scholars who have preceded me for this his monumental work 'Fossil Plants' in lecture ever since its inception in 1953, four volumes (1898-1919) by my teacher, I am fully conscious of the onerous respon­ the late Professor Hem Chandra Das Gupta. sibility imposed on me, and of my limi­ Seward was a histriographer par excellence tations in discharging the same. of palaeobotany and although his "Fossil Sir Albert Seward was born in 1863, and Plants " is in part out of date, it is still an joined the Cambridge University in 1890 essential book of reference in any palaeo­ as a Lecturer and rose steadily to be its botanical library, as is testified by a reprint Vice-Chancellor in 1925. For some times of the four volumes in 1963 by Hafner of he rendered double service to the University New York. and also as a Master of Downing College. As Seward was specially interested in A dominating personality in the world of palaeobotanical studies in general, and India science for nearly half a century, Seward in particular, both in time and space, I feel was elected President of the Geological that I may outline the" Growth of palaeo­ Society of London in 1922, President of the botany in relation to biostratigraphy of 5th International Botanical Congress held India" and choose this topic as the subject at Amsterdam in 1935 and President of the of my talk today. British Association for the Advancement of Science. EARLY HISTORY OF PALAEOBOTANICAL STUDIES IN INDIA Noteworthy, however, is his part in furthering progress of palaeobotany by helping Palaeobotanical studies in India was started young men to become active workers on in right earnest with the formation of the the subject and among those who under Geological Survey of India in 1851, and his guidance later became internationally its first Superintendent Thomas Oldham famous plant morphologists and biogeo­ initiated the Memoirs of the survey in 1856 chronologists, mention may be made of to which, he in collaboration with Prof. Birbal Sahni, Hamshaw Thomas, John J. Morris of London University, made Walton, Harry Godwin and Tom Harris valuable contributions in regard to the (the latter two of whom are still with us), Jurassic flora of Rajmahal Hills in the and it is through them that the present day series "Fossil flora of the Goodwana palaeobotanists and biostratigraphers of India System" in 1863, being the volume I, Part I and other countries, realize and recognize of Palaeol'/tologia indica. 4- GROWTH OF PALAEOBOTANY IN RELATION TO BIOSTRATIGRAPHY OF INDIA It was, however, left to the Austrian Seward's investigations on the flora of Palaeobotanist, Ottokar Feistmantel, who Afghanistan, Afghan-Turkestan, Assam and joined the survey as palaeontologist in 1875, Kashmir appeared in several issues of the to lay the foundation of Indian Palaeobotany. Memoirs and Records of the Geological His monumental works in the subsequent Survey of India. volumes of Palaeontologia indica, published At the request of Prof. Seward, the geo­ between 1877-1886, are well known. These logical Survey of India loaned some of the volumes contain detailed enumeration of specimens described and figured by Feist­ the plant fossils discovered till then with mantel for a restudy. Seward in the early accurate illustrations drawn by artists from stages of this work was only assisted by Bengal. It was Feistmantel, who for the Miss Ruth Holden, a graduate of Harvard first time applied palaeobotany to biostrati­ University and a resident at Newnham graphic classification in India with respect College, Cambridge who got herself inte­ to the Gondwanas and the classification rested in the study of cuticles of Indian of the Gondwana System as proposed by conifers, and Palaeozoic stems of India, him, has stood the test of time, as evidences published in t;le Annals of Botany. Strong addu~ed by the scholars of this Institute sense of duty led her to join a British Medical have amply demonstrated Unit in Russia in December 1916 during After the retirement of Feistmantel in World War I where she died in April 1917. 1885 and till the return of Birbal Salwi from Birbal Sahni in the course of his asso­ Cambridge in 1919, there was an ebb in ciation with Seward took up along with activity in palaeobotanical res~arches in him the revision of the Indian Gondwana India, with only sporadic contributions by Plants and this work was completed by R. D. Oldham, H H. Hayden, E. W. Vre­ April, 1919 and was published in Palaeonto­ denburg and G, de P. Cotter of the logia indica in 1921. Prof. Sahni meanwhile GeologicalSurvey of India. returned to India to join the Banaras Hindu A redee.ning feature, however, was that University as a Professor of Botany, in 1920. within this period palaeobotany as a subject ft was thus not till after World War I, of study was introduced perhaps for the that the study of fossil plants was revived first time in India, in the curricula for the in India by Prof. Sahni, inspired by that M.A. degree in Botany and Geology of the doyen of Pal.~eobotanist, Sir Albert Seward. Calcutta University in 1895. 'Fossil Botany' by H. Graf Zu Solms Laubach, INITIATION OF THE APPLICATION OF PALYNOLOGY IN BIOSTRATIGRAPHY Professor in the University of Gottingen, published in 1887 and a revised and english In 1937, I joined the teaching staff of tIle translation of this book by Sir Isaac Bayley Botany Department of the Calcutta Univer­ Balfour of Edinburgh issued in 1891, was sity and inspired by Prof Sahni to take up recommended by the Calcutta University palaeobotany as my subject. Sahni's review as a text book. Feistmantel's researches on India's fossil flora in his presidential and other works on Indian flora available address to the Botany Section of the Indian till then were duly incorporated in this Science Congress in 1938, formed the basis book. of our teaching work on Indian fossil flora During the first quarter of the present both in its botanical and geological aspects. century specimens of plant fossils from At about this time, Miss Chenna Virkki India found their way abroad for study by (Mrs Jacob) was studying the Gondwana Arber, Seward and Walton in U.K., Zeiller Permian miospore complexes under Birbal in France and others. Sahni at Lucknow University. She extended GROWTH OF PALAEOBOTANY IN RELATION TO BIOSTRATIGRAPHY OF INDIA 5 her work in a monograph on spores from Though they are recorded from so many the Lower Gondwana of India and Australia formations. their application to biostrati­ thaI formed an important landmark In the graphic classification In India in early years history of Permian palynology. had been mostly confined in respect of the She instituted the genus Pityosporites Gondwanas and the Tertiary formations. sewardi Virkki in 1937 from the Lower For the Gondwanas, this is mainly due to Gondwana rocks above the Talchir Boulder the abundance of fossil plants and compa­ bed. rative paucity of other organic remains. 1t may be recalled, Seward instituted the In the oil fields, correlation of Tertiary genus Pityosporill!s in 1914, based on his horizons demanded a superior precision and studies on the Antarctic fossil plants, of the palaeogeograp' y was an important objective. British Antarctic (Terra Nova) expedition Palynological studies provided the answer. 1910 and referred to as Pilyosporites Qntarc­ The Burmah Oil Company Limited ticus Seward. sponsored a projeci under Prof. Birbal In 1940, Sahni emphasized" urgent need Sahni, with a view to find out whether the in fndia for a thorough study on a large study of microfossils could assist in the scale of the spores and cuticles of Indian correlation of the Tertiary succession of fossil plants, particularly of those from the Assam - Arakan basin, in quest for oil. Lower Gondwana which contain such a RecogniZing the importance of geochrono­ vast proportion of our most valuable coals." logical studies, and at the invitation of the HIS call for such study was widely welcomed Committee on Measurement of Geological and resulted in attracting attention in India Time in India of the Council of Scientific to their Importance In stratigraphy. and the and Industrial Research, for a sci eme to late Dr J. Sen, while yet a post-graduate organize, systematize and finance research student in the Calcutta Uni versi ty, work ing on the subject Professor Blrbal Sahni drew on palynology of Raniganj Coalfield, showed out a plan in J 946 for research on the perhaps for the first time in India t le appli­ determinatIOn of the age of Indian sedi­ cation of palynology In stratigraphical mentary rods containing microfos~ils but geology while correlating the Satpukhuriya, not megafossils.
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