About the book: 1971 / The book by S. V. Meyen, candidate of geological and mineralogical sciences, covers a wide range of issues. It talks about paleobotany and scientists who work in this field of science; about the oldest land plants and new methods for their research; about long-term discussions and the use of paleobotanical data to solve evolutionary problems and purely practical issues of geology. Fossil plants provide clues about the climates of the geological past. Paleobotanical arguments play a significant role in the long-standing debate about the movement of continents. The history of the plant world, which lasted hundreds of millions of years and was rich in various events, is no less instructive than the history of the animal world. The book is written in a lively and engaging manner. It is accessible to a wide range of readers interested in the distant past of our planet, and is quite useful to scientists in related fields of science