Walther Gothan was one of the leading European paleobotanists between about 1910 and 1954. He was a leader in establishing a floral biostratigraphy of the late Paleozoic. He did not visit North America, but his cooperation with W. J. Jongmans and W. C. Darrah considerably influenced the interpretation of late Paleozoic floras of North America. Gothan published more than 350 papers, including a number of excellent contributions intended for the general public.

Abstract Although the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration is best remembered for races to the South Pole, the majority of expeditions at the time had scientific aims with geology as one of the important sciences to be studied. Almost all the expeditions carried a doctor, who was usually expected to contribute to the science of the expedition and was often appointed more for his non-medical skills than his medical ones. On the Scotia expedition, Dr J. Harvey Pirie was appointed as doctor, bacteriologist and geologist, and on the Discovery expedition, Dr Reginald Koettlitz was appointed as botanist, but had earlier spent three years as geologist in the Arctic. Ernest Gourdon, the geologist on both French expeditions, was a medical student at the time (although some sources speak of him a being medically qualified) and he obtained doctorates in both geology and medicine for his work in the Antarctic. Perhaps the most important geological discovery of the era was made by Dr Edward Wilson who was a zoologist and artist rather than a geologist, but had a wide interest in natural history. This paper describes these doctors and their contribution to geology on these expeditions.

Abstract: Two basic approaches are used to assess the paleobiology of continental associations between insect herbivores and their host plants. First is a biological approach that emphasizes phylogeny of extant representatives of lineages with fossil records. Second is a paleobiological approach that provides intrinsic evaluation of fossil associational evidence, of which there are several types of studies. One type of study is intensive examination of single insect-herbivore associations that involve a continuum from generalists to specialists requiring detailed autecological deductions about life habits. Another tack is assessment of herbivore damage patterns from selected plant hosts through slices of time for understanding the ecological evolution of a component community. Alternatively, comprehensive analyses can be made of the feeding patterns within a single or a series of regional floras. The record of plant-insect associations has five advantages. Associational data (1) are typically present in deposits that lack insect body fossils; (2) often surpass in abundance and usefulness insect body fossils in the same deposit; (3) frequently antedate their respective insect body fossils; (4) provide invaluable behavioral data that are unavailable from body fossils; and (5) supply crucial data for testing hypotheses in paleobiology and evolutionary biology that otherwise are unachievable. Disadvantages involve difficulties in circumscribing insect culprits, absence of extant ecological data to which fossil data can be compared, and lack of attention by paleobotanists and botanists in collecting damaged specimens. An associational view of fossil land plants and insects provides a dynamic, process-oriented view of ecosystem evolution that is needed in paleobiology.

Abstract Grace Anne Milne, born in 1832, was the eldest child of James Milne of Findhorn in Morayshire and his wife Louisa Falconer, sister of the eminent botanist and palaeontologist Hugh Falconer. A marriage to George McCall in 1854 was short-lived. Widowed within 18 months and also losing her infant son, bereavement was followed by some years of depression. At this stage in her life an interest in geology was kindled by her uncle, who had been forced to give up his post in India because of the state of his health. From 1858 she travelled abroad with Falconer and subsequently resided with him in London until his death in 1865. During this period Grace both organized his household and acted as his secretary and companion. His regular and frank letters to her, about his scientific ideas, demonstrate that the relationship was more than one of domestic convenience. In 1870 Grace married Joseph Prestwich, a friend of Falconer and a London wine merchant who spent all his spare time ‘geologizing’. They lived at Shoreham near Sevenoaks in Kent and, between 1874 and 1887, lived for part of the year in Oxford after Prestwich's appointment as professor of geology at the university. With Prestwich's encouragement, from 1874, she began to publish novels, travel articles and scientific papers, as well as helping him in the preparation of his own lectures and diagrams. Her six Chapters on Geology were published in 1880 as well as other articles on subjects such as Scottish scenery and the Channel Tunnel. Most were published in magazines, such as Leisure Hour and Every Girl's Magazine , designed for a readership from the prosperous middle classes. Her interest in geology meant that she was able to play a full part in Prestwich's life, helping him with his work and travelling with him on his geological adventures. She was a geologist in her own right and held in high regard by the Fellows of the Geological Society.

Abstract Alexander von Humboldt was one of the most important figures in history in general and particularly in the history of natural sciences. He was one of the last universal scholars and his contributions have been appreciated ever since. Even today people are fascinated by his achievements as a natural scientist, explorer, researcher, adventurer, geologist and humanist. Von Humboldt is widely recognized as the founder of modern regional studies. He explored the then unknown Central American countries, studied the geographical distribution of plants for an entire continent and started the popularization of science. In doing so he anticipated an ecological view of nature and an understanding of the impact of technology on society. From the beginning, von Humboldt attempted to understand, reflect and explain nature as a whole. Therefore, his famous volume ‘ Kosmos ’ bears the subtitle ‘ Outline of a physical survey of the World ’. If nothing else, this work was the result of his almost unbelievable enthusiasm to devote his life to the study and interpretation of nature regardless of the necessary effort and exertion required. From his childhood days, von Humboldt felt the urge to travel to faraway regions and countries seldom visited by other Europeans. He wanted to visit and explore Asia, particularly India and then Siberia, and the New World so that he could compare the Andes with the Himalayas, the Venezuelan Llanos with the Siberian steppes. Unfortunately, he was prevented from going to India. But a quarter of a century after finishing his journey to America (1799–1804) he received an offer from the Russian minister of finance, Count Georg of Cancrin, to lead a nine-month expedition through the Russian empire. The expedition started out in April 1829 accompanied by the mineralogist Gustav Rose and the botanist Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg. In late December von Humboldt returned to Germany. Not only had the team covered a distance of 19 000 kilometres but they had also made a wealth of invaluable scientific discoveries. At the same time, relationships were established with Russia which proved very favourable for subsequent explorers. Since 1993, the German Association of Graduates and Friends of Moscow Lomonosow University (DAMU) has been active in reviving traditional Russian–German relationships by recalling and acknowledging German explorers and researchers in Russia. To date five excursions following von Humboldt's footsteps into Russia have taken place.

W. J. Jongmans, a botanist, was drawn into the study of Carboniferous compression floras for stratigraphic purposes. He was the founder and director of the Geological Bureau in Heerlen, Netherlands Limburg, where he organized four highly successful international congresses on Carboniferous stratigraphy and geology. Although starting out with a clear commitment to the monographic description of the Carboniferous flora of The Netherlands, he became increasingly drawn into a worldwide documentation of Carboniferous compression floras. These were also used for floral biogeography. His encyclopedic knowledge of the paleobotanical literature was due in part to his prodigious efforts to compile the Fossilium Catalogus—Plantae, an indispensable work of reference for the paleobotanical taxonomist. He also furthered palynological and coal petrographic studies.