A comprehensive introduction to palaeobotany that surveys historical development, the relationships between fossil plants and geology and recent botany, and the geological contexts in which plant remains occur. It explains modes of preservation—petrifaction, coalification, permineralization, and coal-balls—reviews sources of error and nomenclature, and provides systematic treatment of lower and thalloid plant groups with emphasis on algal and microbial fossils. The volume offers practical guidance on identification, taphonomy, and specimen study, and aims to orient students toward research by combining descriptive accounts, illustrative material, and extensive references.