![carbonized conifers and cycads, with a few ferns and lycopodiaceæ, or club-
mosses.
[48] See Sir J. F. W. Herschel's Discourse on Nat. Phil.
The brown-coal of Hohen-Warte by the Osterweld, is chiefly formed of the
Abies Linkii, and Pterophyllum Lyellianum, whose leaves and twigs, closely
impacted together, are generally of a brownish colour, have a glossy surface,
and, when soaked in water, are perfectly flexible. The other modification of
Wealden coal appears to have undergone a greater degree of pressure, and of
exclusion from the atmosphere; no ligneous structure is apparent, but indistinct
impressions of leaves are perceptible, and these are chiefly of ferns and club-
mosses. This coal has probably resulted from an accumulation of plants of less
firm texture, and more perishable, than those of which the former is composed.
[49]
[49] See Dr. Bunker's Mon. Norddeutsch. Weald.
Many interesting facts relating to the carbonization of vegetables, came
under my observation during my researches in the Wealden strata; and it is a
subject of regret to me, that circumstances prevented my following up the
investigation of those still imperfectly explored deposits. Small nodular portions
of coal, in which no structure is apparent, often occur in the calciferous grit of
Tilgate Forest; and sometimes large masses of lignite, fissured in every
direction, and having the interstices filled with white calcareous spar.[50] Some
of the sandstones are discoloured by the abundance of minute particles of
lignite, produced by the disintegration of ferns peculiar to the country of the
Iguanodon.
[50] A fine specimen of this kind is in the British Museum.
The original structure and composition of a plant doubtless affected its
carbonization; for in the same layer of stone, the stems of Endogenites,
hereafter described, invariably possess a thick, outer crust, of coal; while those
of Clathrariæ, plants allied to the Cycads, have not a particle of carbonaceous
matter, but are surrounded by a reddish brown earthy substance. The nature of
the stratum in which the plants were imbedded, must also have influenced the
process of bituminization. Masses of vegetables buried beneath beds of
tenacious clay, by which the escape of the gaseous elements set free by
decomposition was prevented, must have been placed under the most
favourable conditions for their conversion into lignite and coal.
That the production of lignite is still going on there can be no doubt; and the
following instance of a bed of recent origin, affords an instructive illustration of](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25194-250309131223-9e7d779b/85/Innovation-and-the-Creative-Process-Lars-Fuglsang-51-320.jpg)
![COA
the subject . Near Limerick, in the district of Maine, one of the States of North
America, there are peat-bogs of considerable extent, in which a substance
similar to cannel-coal is found at the depth of three or four feet from the
surface, amidst the remains of rotten logs of wood, and beaver-sticks:[51] the
peat is twenty feet thick, and rests upon white sand. This coal was discovered
on digging a ditch to drain a portion of the bog, for the purpose of obtaining
peat for manure. The substance is a true bituminous coal, containing more
bitumen than is found in any other variety,[52] Polished sections of the compact
masses exhibit the peculiar structure of coniferous trees, and prove that the
coal was derived from a species allied to the American fir.
[51] Pieces of wood fashioned by the beavers for the construction of their
dams.
[52] An analysis of 100 grains gave the following results:—Bitumen 72;
carbon, 21; oxide of iron, 4; silica, 1; oxide of manganese, 2; = 100.
Coal.—We proceed to the examination of that remarkable substance
which has resulted from the perfect bituminization of the vegetables of the most
ancient Flora which geological researches have brought to light, and to which
the term Coal is commonly restricted.
Although Balthazar Klein in the sixteenth century affirmed that coal owed its
formation to wood and other vegetable substances,[53] yet I can well remember
when many eminent geologists were sceptical on this point; and the truth in
this, as in most other questions of natural philosophy, was established with
difficulty. The experiments and observations of the late Dr. Macculloch, mainly
contributed to solve the problem as to the vegetable nature of this substance;
and that eminent chemist and geologist successfully traced the transition of
vegetable matter from peat-wood, brown-coal, lignite, and jet, to coal,
anthracite, graphite, and plumbago. Nor must the meritorious labours of that
accomplished naturalist, and excellent man, the late Mr. Parkinson, author of the
"Organic Remains of a Former World," in this field of research, be forgotten.[54]
The first volume of that work, which treats on fossil plants, contains much
original information on the transmutation of vegetables into the various mineral
substances in which the nature and original structure of the originals are
altogether changed and obliterated; it may still be consulted by the student with
advantage.
[53] Sternberg's "Flore du Monde Primitif."
[54] See my "Pictorial Atlas of Organic Remains," 1850.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25194-250309131223-9e7d779b/85/Innovation-and-the-Creative-Process-Lars-Fuglsang-52-320.jpg)
![While the essential conditions for the conversion of vegetable substances
into coal appear to be the imbedding of large quantities of recent trees and
plants in a deposit which shall exclude the air, and prevent the escape of the
gaseous elements when released by decomposition from their organic
combination, so, according to the more or less perfect manner in which these
conditions are fulfilled, will result coal, jet, lignite, brown-coal, or peat-wood; or
a mass of partially carbonized vegetables, like that observable when new-mown
hay undergoes spontaneous combustion, from bituminous fermentation in the
atmosphere (Wond. p. 701. Org. Rem. I. p. 181).
The manner in which the carboniferous strata have been deposited, has
been a subject of much discussion. Some contend that the coal-measures were
originally in the state of peat-bogs, and that the successive layers were formed
by the subsidences of forests which grew on the sites now occupied by their
carbonized remains; others suppose that the vegetable matter originated from
rafts, like those of the Mississippi, which floated out to sea, and became
engulfed; while many affirm that the coal-measures were accumulated in inland
seas or lakes, the successive beds of vegetable matter being supplied by
periodical land-floods; and the supporters of each hypothesis bring numerous
facts in corroboration of their respective opinions. There can, I think, be no
doubt that the production of coal has taken place under each of these
conditions, and that at different periods, and in various localities, all these
causes have been in operation; in some instances singly, in others in
combination. Coal may have been formed at the bottom of fresh-water lakes, as
in those instances where it is associated with fresh-water shells and
crustaceans, as at Burdie House (Wond. p. 693), and in some of the Derbyshire
and Yorkshire deposits; in the beds of rivers and estuaries, as in the Wealden,
and in the Shrewsbury coal-field;[55] and from drifted forests, like the rafts of
the American rivers, transported into the sea, and engulfed in the abyss of the
ocean;[56] and the remains of terrestrial, lacustrine, and marine animals, may
accordingly be found associated with it.[57] But though many coal-fields (or
basins, as they are termed, because they occupy depressions) have evidently
been produced by different, and local agencies, the sedimentary deposits and
coal-beds comprised in the carboniferous formations, setting aside unimportant
variations, present a remarkable uniformity of character in their nature and
arrangement, not only throughout Great Britain and Europe, but in every other
part of the known world.
[55] In this coal-field are beds of limestone several feet thick, abounding
in cyprides, fresh-water mollusks, &c.—Sil. Syst. p, 84.
[56] The immense thicknesss of some coal-beds, without any
intercalations of earthy materials, seems to be inexplicable on any other](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25194-250309131223-9e7d779b/85/Innovation-and-the-Creative-Process-Lars-Fuglsang-54-320.jpg)
![STRATIFICATION OF A COAL-FIEL
supposition but that of accumulations of drift-wood and plants. In the Great
Exhibition of 1851, there was exhibited, on the outside of the west end of
the Crystal Palace, a section of the lowest bed of coal from Tividale Colliery
in South Staffordshire, the total thickness of which was 29 feet, with no
intermixture whatever of sediment, except some thin shaly partings: the
entire mass was composed of carbonized vegetables.
[57] Sir R. I. Murchison has treated this subject with great ability: see Sil.
Syst. chap, xi., and the illustrative maps opposite, p. 152.
Stratification of a Coal-field.—The group of strata
constituting a coal-field consists of an alternation of layers of coal and of clay, of
variable thickness, resting, very generally, on grit, or marine limestone
abounding in shells, corals, and crinoidea.
My late excellent friend, Mr. Bakewell, used to exemplify the manner in
which the beds of coal are interstratified with layers of clay and shale, by the
following apt illustration; let a series of mussel-shells be placed one within the
other, and a layer of clay be interposed between each; the shells will represent
the beds of coal, and the partitions of clay the earthy strata intercalated
between the carboniferous layers; now, if one side of the series of shells be
raised to indicate the general rise of the strata in that direction, and the whole
be dislocated by partial cracks and fissures, the general arrangement and
subsequent displacement of the beds will be represented.
The principal feature which arrests attention on the examination of the
section of a coal-pit, is the uniform presence of a thick bed of clay beneath
every layer of coal; but a still more extraordinary fact remains to be mentioned,
namely, that a common plant of the coal strata, called Stigmaria, (hereafter
described, see Lign. 36, 38,) invariably occurs, more or less abundantly, in this
bed of under-day, although very rarely to be met with in the coal or shale
above. This phenomenon, long since noticed by Martin, Macculloch, and other
authors, but whose value was not duly estimated till the recent observations of
Mr. Logan, (Geol. Proc. vol. iii. p. 275,) is also found to prevail throughout the
Welsh coal formation, which is upwards of twelve thousand feet in thickness,
and contains more than sixty beds of coal, and as many of clay with stigmariæ;
the Appalachian coal-measures of the United States present the same
characters.[58] To place this fact before the student in a clear point of view, I
will describe one of the triple series of beds which compose a coal-field.
[58] See Prof. Rogers, in the Proceedings of the American Geologists, p.
453; and Sir C. Lyell's Travels in America.
1. Under-clay; the lowermost stratum. A tough argillaceous substance, which
upon drying becomes a grey friable earth: it is occasionally black, from the](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25194-250309131223-9e7d779b/85/Innovation-and-the-Creative-Process-Lars-Fuglsang-55-320.jpg)
![resulted from the foliage and branches of a prostrate forest, overwhelmed and
buried beneath the transported detritus of distant rocks.
These phenomena may be explained by supposing the inundation of a
thickly-wooded plain from an irruption of the sea; or of a vast inland lake,
occasioned by the sudden removal of some barrier; or by a subsidence of the
tract of country on which the forest grew. But when we find an accumulation of
strata, in which triple deposits of this kind are repeated some thirty or forty
times through a thickness of many thousand feet, this solution of the problem is
not satisfactory. Not only subsidence after subsidence must have taken place,
but the first submergence have been followed by an elevation of the land—
another soil, fit for the growth of forest trees, must have been produced—
another generation of vegetables, of precisely the same species and genera,
have sprung up, and arrived at maturity—and then another subsidence, and
another accumulation of drift. And these periodical oscillations in the relative
level of the land and water must have gone on uninterruptedly through a long
period of time, not in one district or country only, but in various parts of the
world, during the same geological epoch. At present I do not think we have
data sufficient to explain these phenomena; what has been advanced may,
perhaps, serve to elicit further information, by pointing out the difficulties in
which the question is involved, and showing what interesting fields of discovery
are still unexplored, and how comprehensive and important are the objects that
come within the scope of geological investigation.[59]
[59] I would refer the student for a fuller consideration of the
phenomena thus briefly noticed, to the 6th edition of my Wonders of
Geology, pp. 669, 718, 731.
I will conclude this chapter with the following beautiful reflections of Dr.
Buckland on the origin and nature of Coal, and the changes it undergoes when
rendered subservient to the necessities and luxuries of man.
"Few persons are aware of the remote and wonderful events in the economy
of our planet, and of the complicated applications of human industry and
science, which are involved in the production of the coal that supplies with fuel
the metropolis of England.
"The most early stage to which we can carry back its origin, was among the
swamps and forests of the primeval earth, where it flourished in the form of
gigantic Calamites, and stately Lepidodendra, and Sigillariæ. From their native
bed, these plants were transported into some adjacent lake, or estuary, or sea.
Here they floated on the waters, until they sank saturated to the bottom, and](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25194-250309131223-9e7d779b/85/Innovation-and-the-Creative-Process-Lars-Fuglsang-57-320.jpg)
![being buried in the detritus of adjacent lands, became transferred to a new
estate among the members of the mineral kingdom. A long interment followed,
during which a course of chemical changes, and new combinations of their
vegetable elements, converted them to the mineral condition of coal. By the
elevating force of subterranean agency, these beds of coal have been uplifted
from beneath the waters, to a new position in the hills and mountains, where
they are accessible to the industry of man. From this fourth stage, coal has
been removed by the labours of the miner, assisted by the arts and sciences,
that have co-operated to produce the steam-engine, and the safety-lamp.
Returned once more to the light of day, and a second time committed to the
waters, it has, by the aid of navigation, been conveyed to the scene of its next
and most considerable change by fire; a change during which it becomes
subservient to the most important wants and conveniences of man. In this
seventh stage of its long eventful history, it seems, to the vulgar eye, to
undergo annihilation; its elements are, indeed, released from the mineral
combinations which they have maintained for ages, but their apparent
destruction is only the commencement of new successions of change and of
activity. Set free from their long imprisonment, they return to their native
atmosphere, from which they were absorbed by the primeval vegetation of the
earth. To-morrow they may contribute to the substance of timber, in the trees of
our existing forests; and having for a while resumed their place in the living
vegetable kingdom, may, ere long, be applied a second time to the use and
benefit of man. And when decay or fire shall once more consign them to the
earth, or to the atmosphere, the same elements will enter on some further
department of their perpetual ministration in the economy of the material
world."[60]
[60] Bd p. 481.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25194-250309131223-9e7d779b/85/Innovation-and-the-Creative-Process-Lars-Fuglsang-58-320.jpg)
![FOSSIL DIATOMACE
It is estimated that not more than two thousand species of plants have been
discovered in a fossil state, while the known recent species amount to upwards
of eighty thousand.
Cellular Cryptogamia; Algæ.—The plants designated by botanists Algæ, and
commonly known as sea-weeds, lavers, and fresh-water mosses, are of the
most simple structure—mere aggregations of cells—but present innumerable
varieties of form and magnitude: many species are mere vesicles of such
minuteness as to be invisible to the unassisted eye, except accumulated in
countless myriads, when they appear as a green, purple, or reddish, slime in
the water; or as a film on wood or stone, or on the ground, in damp situations;
while others are tough branched marine plants, many fathoms in length.
The Algæ form three principal groups: 1. the jointless, as the Fuci, the
Dulses, Tangles, and Lavers: 2. the jointed, which are composed of thread-like
articulated tubes; such are the fresh-water Confervæ: 3. the disjointed, or
Brittle-worts, so called from their spontaneous self-division, which is in some
kinds complete, in others only partial; and these, by separating transversely,
and leaving each cell or frustule attached at the angles, produce those beautiful
chains of angular green transparent cases, so constantly seen under the
microscope when substances from fresh-water streams or lakes are submitted
to examination.
As many of these forms are endowed with spontaneous motion, and possess
other properties common to animal organization, it is not surprising that their
vegetable nature was doubted, and that even so profound a naturalist as M.
Ehrenberg placed them in the animal kingdom: the greater number being
comprised in his family of Bacillariæ, were described in the former edition of
this work, as Infusoria or Animalcules; in conformity with the classification of
the illustrious microscopist, whose splendid works and indefatigable labours
have so greatly promoted the advancement of microscopical investigation.[61]
[61] The whole of the objects called Infusoria in the first edition of "The
Medals of Creation" belong to various kinds of Diatomaceæ.
These minute vegetable organisms are placed by botanists in
two tribes, the Diatomaceæ or the Brittle-worts, and the Desmidieæ. The latter
are exclusively inhabitants of fresh-water, while a large proportion of the former
are marine plants. Some naturalists (M. Brébisson) restrict the name
Diatomaceæ to those species which secrete siliceous envelopes; and that of
Desmidieæ to those whose structures are not siliceous, and are reducible by
heat to carbon. As the durable parts of these plants alone concern the](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25194-250309131223-9e7d779b/85/Innovation-and-the-Creative-Process-Lars-Fuglsang-60-320.jpg)
![geologist, the name Diatomaceæ will be employed as a general term in
reference to their fossil remains.
These tribes of Algæ abound in every lake and stream of fresh-water, in
every pool or bay, and throughout the ocean from the equator to the poles.
Certain kinds of sea-weeds secrete carbonate of lime; but the Diatomaceæ have
the power of separating silex, or the earth of flint, from the water, by some
unknown process, and their tissues are composed of pure quartz: hence, under
the microscope, their remains, consisting wholly of rock crystal, exhibit the most
exquisite forms, elaborately fretted and ornamented (see Lign. 4). After the
death and decomposition of these plants, their durable frustules or cases
appear as colourless discs, cups, spheres, shields, &c., and these accumulate at
the bottom of the water in such inconceivable numbers, as to form strata of
great thickness and extent. Slowly, imperceptibly, and incessantly, are the vital
energies of these atoms separating from the element in which they live the
most refractory and enduring of mineral substances, silex, and elaborating it
into imperishable structures, and thus adding enormous contributions to the
accumulations of detritus, which make up the sedimentary rocks of the crust of
the globe.
The extent of this infinitesimal flora throughout regions where no other
forms of vegetation are known, is strikingly demonstrated by the observations
of our eminent botanical traveller. Dr. Joseph Hooker, in his account of the
Antarctic regions.[62]
[62] "On the Botany of the South Polar Regions;" in Sir J. Ross's Voyage
of Discovery.
"Everywhere," Dr. Hooker states, "the waters and the ice alike abound in
these microscopic vegetables. Though too small to be visible to the unassisted
eye, their aggregated masses stained the iceberg and pack-ice wherever the
latter were washed by the sea, and imparted a pale ochreous colour to the ice.
From the south of the belt of ice which encircles the globe, to the highest
latitudes reached by man, this vegetation is everywhere conspicuous, from the
contrast between its colour and that of the white snow and ice in which it is
imbedded.
"In the 80° of south latitude all the surface ice carried along by currents,
and the sides of every berg, and the base of the great Victoria barrier itself—a
perpendicular wall of ice, from one to two hundred feet above the sea level—
were tinged brown from this cause, as if the waters were charged with oxide of
iron. The majority of these plants consist of simple vegetable cells enclosed in](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25194-250309131223-9e7d779b/85/Innovation-and-the-Creative-Process-Lars-Fuglsang-61-320.jpg)
![RECENT DIATOMACE
indestructible silex; and it is obvious that the death of such multitudes must
form sedimentary deposits of immense extent.
"The universal existence of such an invisible vegetation as that of the
Antarctic Ocean is a truly wonderful fact, and the more so from its being
unaccompanied by plants of a high order. This ocean swarms with mollusca, and
entomostracous crustaceans, small whales, and porpoises; and the sea with
penguins and seals, and the air with birds; the animal kingdom is everywhere
present, the larger creatures preying on the smaller, and these again on those
more minute; all living nature seems to be carnivorous. This microscopic
vegetation is the sole nutrition of the herbivorous animals; and it may likewise
serve to purify the atmosphere, and thus execute in the Antarctic latitudes the
office of the trees and grasses of the temperate regions, and the broad foliage
of the palms of the tropics."
Dr. Hooker also remarks that the siliceous envelopes of the same kinds of
diatomaceæ now living in the waters of the South Polar Ocean, have
contributed in past ages to the formation of European strata; for the tripoli and
the phonolite stones of the Rhine, contain the siliceous envelopes of identical
species.
Such are the comments of one of our most distinguished botanists, on the
phenomena under review. The reader will perhaps ask, what then are the
essential characters which separate the animal from the vegetable kingdom? To
this question it is impossible to give a satisfactory reply: perhaps the only
distinction that will be generally admitted by zoologists and botanists is the
following:—animals require organic substances for their support; vegetables
derive their sustenance from inorganic matter.
Recent Diatomaceæ. Plate IV.—To familiarize the reader with
the nature of these vegetable organisms, a few recent species are represented
in Plate IV., coloured as they appear when alive, under the microscope; the
figures are magnified as expressed by the fractions.
Xanthidium. Plate IV. figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.—The case or frustule of this genus
consists of a hollow, siliceous globe, beset with spines. The increase of the
Xanthidia by self-division, produces the double appearance in the figures, all of
which are in the progress of separation.[63]
[63] The organisms so abundant in the flint and chalk, and which were
referred by M. Ehrenberg to this genus, and consequently described under
the name of Xanthidia by myself and others, are certainly in nowise related
to the recent forms: they are flexible envelopes, and probably belong to
zoophytes; as will be shown in the sequel.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25194-250309131223-9e7d779b/85/Innovation-and-the-Creative-Process-Lars-Fuglsang-62-320.jpg)
![That the general reader, whose attention is for the first time directed to this
subject, may be prepared for the enormous deposits of fossil diatomaceæ that
are found in some formations, I subjoin the observations of Dr. Bailey on an
elegant fragile species, which hangs together in clusters, appearing like spiral
chains, and is about 1
/20 of a line in diameter; it is named Meridion vernale.
"This fresh-water plant is seen in immense quantities in the mountain brooks
around West Point, the bottoms of which are literally covered in the first warm
days of spring with a ferruginous-coloured mucous matter, about a quarter of an
inch thick, that, on examination by the microscope, proves to be filled with
millions and millions of these exquisitely beautiful siliceous organisms. Every
submerged stone, twig, and spear of grass, is enveloped by them; and the
waving plume-like appearance of a filamentous body covered in this manner, is
often extremely elegant. Alcohol completely dissolves the endochrome (soft
colouring matter) of this species, and the frustules are left as colourless as
glass, and resist the action of fire."[64]
[64] Trans. Amer. Assoc. Geolog. 1843, p. 152.
The yellow or ochreous scum observable in ponds, ditches, and stagnant
pools, is an aggregation of diatomaceæ, whose frustules are feriniginous, and of
such extreme minuteness, that a billion of their cases would not be more than a
cubic inch in bulk.[65]
[65] Ehrenberg.
Fossil Diatomaceæ.—From this notice of a few recent types, we proceed to the
investigation of the fossil remains of this tribe of Algæ.
In peat-bogs and swamps, both of modern and ancient date, masses of a
white marly or siliceous paste (hydrate of silica), are often observed, and these
are found upon microscopical observation to be wholly made up of the frustules
of Naviculæ, Bacillariæ, Galionellæ, &c., with an intermixture of the needle-like
spicules of fresh-water sponges. Many of the peat-bogs of Ireland contain layers
of a white earthy substance, which, when dry, is of the appearance and
consistence of friable chalk, and entirely consists of the siliceous cases of
various kinds of diatomaceæ.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25194-250309131223-9e7d779b/85/Innovation-and-the-Creative-Process-Lars-Fuglsang-64-320.jpg)
![FOSSIL DIATOMACEÆ OF IRELAN
Lign. 4. Siliceous Frustules of Diatomaceæ, and Spicules of Spongillæ;
from a deposit on the banks of the river Bann, Ireland.
(Seen by transmitted light, and highly magnified.)
Fossil Diatomaceæ from Ireland, Lign. 4.—Dr.
Drummond describes a bed of this kind near the base of the Mourne Mountains,
in the County of Down, Ireland. It consists of a very light white substance,
resembling in appearance carbonate of magnesia: it has a coarse and
somewhat fibrous fracture, and is easily reduced to powder. It is almost entirely
siliceous, and is composed of the cases of diatomaceæ of the usual fresh-water
species, without any admixture of inorganic matter.[66]
[66] Mag. Nat. Hist. New Series, vol. iii. p. 353, July 1839.
On the banks of the river Bann, in the same county, there is an extensive
stratum of a similar earth, and which, from being in much request for polishing
plate, is locally known as Lord Roden's plate powder. This earth is wholly made
up of the siliceous frustules of many kinds of this tribe of Algæ, and a few
grains under the microscope yield a great variety of exquisite forms: figures of
several are given in Lign. 4, from specimens of this earth, with which I was
favoured by the Countess of Caledon. They comprise two or three species of
Navicula, Galionella, Coscinodiscus, Gomphonema, Bacillaria, Stauroneis, &c.,
and spicules or spines of fresh-water sponges.[67]
[67] The names of the usual kinds of Diatomaceous frustules may be
learnt by reference to Mr. Andrew Pritchard's abstract (with coloured figures)
of Ehrenberg's Infusoria. The splendid work of Mr. Ralfs, on the British
Desmidieæ, 1 vol. 4to, with coloured plates, is the best guide for those who
wish to study the recent plants.
Beds of siliceous marl—that is, of argillaceous earth combined with a large
amount of minute particles of silex, all of which prove to be organisms when
examined by a high magnifying power,—have been found in numerous places](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25194-250309131223-9e7d779b/85/Innovation-and-the-Creative-Process-Lars-Fuglsang-65-320.jpg)
![Lign. 5.
Fossil. Galiomellæ; highly
magnified.
not only in England, but all over the world, since M. Ehrenberg first directed
attention to their nature and origin.
Near Bryansford (Newcastle), Binstwick in Holderness, and in the Fens of
Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, extensive fresh-water microphytal deposits
have been discovered and examined.
From our Antipodes I have received many examples of these vegetable
earths. My eldest son, Mr. Walter Mantell, discovered an extensive bed of white
marl on the banks of the great brackish-water lake of Waihora, in the middle
island of New Zealand, consisting entirely of frustules of Bacillariæ. From New
Plymouth he obtained some new and exquisite forms of Navicula, Stauroneis,
&c.; ranges of low hillocks of sand, of considerable extent, being made up of
microphytes (microscopic plants).[68]
[68] See a Memoir on the Geology and Fossil Remains of New Zealand,
from the researches of Walter Mantell, Esq.—Geol. Journal, vol. vi. pl. 29.
Mr. Dean, of Clapham Common, informs me that a large quantity of white
earth sent from New Zealand as native magnesia, he found to consist wholly of
frustules of diatomaceæ, chiefly of Galionellæ. (See Lign. 5.)
In America, recent beds of this kind of great
extent have been observed and examined by
that distinguished microscopist, Dr. Bailey,
Professor of Chemistry in the Military Academy at
West Point: and the pages of that excellent
scientific periodical, Silliman's American Journal
of Science, are enriched with figures and
descriptions of the microphytes of which they are
mainly composed.
But the Tertiary formations contain strata of
this nature, which far surpass in the abundance and variety of their organic
contents, any of the modern deposits we have noticed. The Polierschiefer, or
polishing-slate of Bilin, is stated, by M. Ehrenberg, to form a series of strata
fourteen feet in thickness, entirely made up of the siliceous shells of Galionellæ,
of such extreme minuteness, that a cubic inch of the stone contains forty-one
thousand millions. The Berghmehl (mountain-meal, or fossil farina), of San
Flora, in Tuscany, is one mass of these organisms.
In Lapland a similar earth is met with, which, in times of scarcity, is mixed by
the inhabitants with the ground bark of trees, for food; some of this earth was
found to contain twenty different species of algæ.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25194-250309131223-9e7d779b/85/Innovation-and-the-Creative-Process-Lars-Fuglsang-66-320.jpg)
![Lign. 7. Microphytes
[69]
from the Richmond-earth; highly magnified.
Tertiary. Virginia.
Fig. 1.—Navicula. 1a. Side view.
2.—Coscinodiscus radiatus; a portion of the circular shield.
3.—Galionella sulcata; the upper figure shows the transverse face of one of the frustules.
3a.—Three united cells viewed laterally.
4, 5.—Actinocyclus. Two species.
6.—Coscinodiscus patina; transverse view. 6a. Lateral view.
[69] As the term Infusorial-earth must be abandoned, it will be
convenient to substitute a name simply expressive of the nature of the most
abundant organisms that enter into the composition of these deposits: that
of Microphyta, or Microphytes, (from μικρος, mikros, small, and φυτον,
phyton, a plant), signifying very minute vegetables, may perhaps be
admissible: in this sense the word microphytal is employed in these pages.
When a few grains of the marl are prepared, and mounted on a glass,
almost all these varieties will be manifest, so largely is this earth composed of
organic structures; in fact, very few inorganic particles are intermixed, the
merest pellicle left by the evaporation of a drop of water in which some of the
marl has been mixed, teeming with the most beautiful structures.
At Petersburg, in Virginia, a sandy marl occurs, interstratified with deposits
which, from their shells, are referred to the older tertiary formations. Probably
this marl is a continuation of that of Richmond, but it is full of many new forms,
associated with those common in the earth of the latter locality.[70]
[70] Dr. Bailey, with great liberality, has so amply supplied myself and
other observers with specimens of these deposits for examination, that the
fossils above described are familiar to all British microscopists. Figures of
many of those organisms are given in the American Journal of Science.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25194-250309131223-9e7d779b/85/Innovation-and-the-Creative-Process-Lars-Fuglsang-68-320.jpg)
![It is an interesting fact, (first observed by Mr. Hamlin Lee,) that the common
Scallop (Pecten maximus), as well as the Barnacle (Balanus), feed on
diatomaceæ, and their stomachs generally contain numerous cases of
Coscinodisci, Dichtyochi, Actinocycli, &c.: a slide prepared and mounted with the
contents of the stomachs of these mollusks, presents an assemblage of forms
identical with those found in the tertiary earths of Virginia.[71]
[71] See my "Thoughts on Animalcules," p. 103.
In the mud of the quicksands on the shore at Brighton, Mr. Reginald Mantell
found recent Coscinodisci, &c. associated with fossil polythalamia that had been
washed out of the chalk, and precipitated with the frustules of the recent
diatomaceæ, into the sediments now in progress.
The prevalence of marine and fresh-water forms in the same deposit is not
unusual; and the remarks of Dr. Bailey on this fact are so pertinent, that I insert
them, as a salutary caution against hasty generalizations on subjects connected
with these investigations. After describing a species of Galionella (G.
moniliformis), as an inhabitant only of salt and brackish water, and stating that
he had also found it sixty miles up the Hudson River, near West Point, Dr. Bailey
observes—"The Fauna and Flora of the Hudson at this place would, if in a fossil
state, be rather puzzling to the geologist, on account of the singular mixture of
marine and fluviatile species. While Valisneria and Potamogeton (two common
fresh-water plants), grow in such vast quantities, in some places, as to prevent
the passage of a boat, and the shore is strewn with fluviatile shells (such as
Planorbis, Physa, &c.) in a living state, yet the above plants are entangled with
Algæ (sea-weeds), and marine parasitic zoophytes; while the rocks below low-
water mark are covered with Balani (barnacles) and minute corallines, and the
marine Flora is represented by vast quantities of very elegant sea plants."[72]
[72] American Journal of Science, vol. x. p. 41.
I must here close this extended notice of the fossil remains of a class of
vegetable organisms, which, though for the most part invisible to the unassisted
eye as individual forms, constitute by their inconceivable multitudes an
important element in the formation of sedimentary deposits. The fact of their
having been formerly treated of as animalcules, and generally regarded as
belonging to the animal kingdom, rendered a full consideration of the
phenomena necessary, in order to place the subject before the reader in a clear
and comprehensive point of view.[73]](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25194-250309131223-9e7d779b/85/Innovation-and-the-Creative-Process-Lars-Fuglsang-69-320.jpg)
![FOSSIL FUCOID
[73] As both the recent and fossil frustules of Diatomaceæ are beautiful
objects for the microscope and polariscope, they are in much request.
Specimens mounted on glass slides may be had of Mr. Topping, and Mr.
Poulton. See Appendix.
Confervites.—The cellular aquatic plants named Confervæ are sometimes
found in transparent quartz pebbles, and in chalk, appearing as delicate simple
or branched filaments, which, by the aid of the microscope, are seen to be
articulated. Seven species are described by authors, but the vegetable nature of
some of these is doubtful. A beautiful species in Chalk, first noticed by the late
Samuel Woodward, Esq. (author of the Geology of Norfolk), is here figured.
Lign. 8. Confervites Woodwardii; nat.
Chalk. Norfolk.
Fossil Fucoids.—Of the tribe of Algæ which comprises the sea-
weeds that are not articulated, many fossil species occur in very ancient, as well
as in modern, fossiliferous deposits. In the Lower Silurian rocks of North
America, beds of limestone of great extent are full of a large digitated Fucus
(Fucoides Alleghaniensis).[74] The Firestone or Malm-rock of Bignor in Sussex
abounds in a ramose variety (Fucoides Targionii, Vég. Foss. p. 56), of which
specimens are figured in the vignette of this volume, and in Lign. 9.
[74] Figured and described in Dr. Harlan's Medical and Physical
Researches: Philadelphia, 1835, p. 393.
Chondrites.—These fossil algæ approach nearest to the living species of
Chondrus (hence the name of the genus). The frond is thick, branched,
dichotomous, with cylindrical or claviform divisions, with a smooth surface and
without tubercles. The substance of the Bignor fossils is a white friable earth,
which strikingly contrasts with the dark grey malm-rock that forms the matrix.
As the Sussex Chalk Chondrites appear to be distinct from the Tertiary species
named by M. Brongniart C. Targionii, I have, at the suggestion of Mr. Morris,](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25194-250309131223-9e7d779b/85/Innovation-and-the-Creative-Process-Lars-Fuglsang-70-320.jpg)
![Lign. 10 Delesserites
(Fucoides) Lamourouxii.
Monte Bolca. (Vég. Foss. Br.)
Lign. 11.
Moss and Conferva,
in transparent
quartz, × 3.
mosses, confervæ, or algæ, were
organic; in every case the
mineral origin of the pseudo-
vegetation was, in his opinion,
unequivocal. Some of the
beautiful green arborescent
bodies in quartz pebbles, even
under the microscope, present so
close a resemblance to confervæ
and mosses, that it is difficult to
persuade oneself they are not
vegetable structures; but the
observations of M. Brongniart
appear to me conclusive as to
their mineral nature.[75] With the
exception of three or four species
of Jungermannia, and four or five
of Muscites in Amber, M.
Brongniart states that he knows
but one true fossil plant of the
family of Mosses; the Muscites
Tournalii from the fresh-water tertiary deposits of
Armissan.
[75] See Histoire des Végétaux Fossiles, pp. 29-
34.
Vascular, or Acrogenous Cryptogamia.—These plants, as the name implies,
possess a more complicated structure than the preceding, having vascular
tissue as varied as in the phanerogamia.
Equisetaceæ.—The common species of Equisetum, or Marestail, is a plant that
grows in marshy tracts, and on the banks of ditches and rivers; it has a jointed
stalk, garnished with elegant sheaths which embrace the stem, and verticillate
linear leaves: it attains a height of two feet, and is half an inch in diameter. In
the fossil state there are many plants allied to the Equisetum, but only a few
that are generically the same.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25194-250309131223-9e7d779b/85/Innovation-and-the-Creative-Process-Lars-Fuglsang-72-320.jpg)
![(Ad. Brongn. Pl. 13.)
Lower Oolite. Whitby.
Fig. 1.
—
Portion of a stem,
showing two
articulations, and an
intermediate
constriction. 1
/3 nat.
2.
—
A few of the
denticulations
produced by the
sheath, nat.
Lign. 14. Calamites
decoratus.
1
/3 nat.
(Ad. Brongniart. Pl. 14.)
Coal Formation. Yorkshire.
Fig. 1.
—
Part of a stem,
showing the
tubercles for the
fact was also discovered at Carlton Bank, near
Stokesly, forty miles from the coast. In both localities
fossil shells of fresh-water mussels (Uniones) were
associated with the vegetable remains.
This plant is a true equisetum, differing chiefly
from existing species in its gigantic size and
arborescent character. The sheaths surrounding the
stem, and the verticillate linear leaves, are preserved
in some examples: and in all, the furrows left by the
imprints of the sheaths are more or less strongly
impressed. The stem is not channelled throughout,
as in Calamites, the carboniferous plant whose stems at first sight might be
mistaken for those of Equisetites, but which are entirely distinct, as will be
explained hereafter. The Equisetites columnaris is peculiar to the Oolite; it does
not occur in the coal-measures. Specimens have been discovered which indicate
a height of twenty feet, and a diameter of several inches.[76]
[76] See Hist. Vég. Fossiles, p. 115.
A small species of Equisetum (Eq. Brodiei[77]) occurs in the insectiferous
limestone of the lower Lias, at Strensham, Worcestershire, associated with the
foliage of fresh-water endogenous plants resembling the Potamogeton, or pond-
weed, and of supposed dicotyledonous vegetables.
[77] Prof. Buckman, in Geol. Journal, vol. vi. p. 413.
Calamites. Lign. 14, 15.—Stem articulated, regularly
furrowed longitudinally, the articulations naked, or
studded with tubercles.
The plants of this genus were supposed to be
related to the marestail, but to differ in the absence of
the encircling sheaths, and in being uniformly striated;
but an examination of specimens in a better state of
preservation than those previously known, shows their
affinity to the gymnosperms. Some of the species are
of a gigantic size, being from one to three feet in
diameter, and from thirty to forty feet in height.
Calamites abound in the coal formation, and must have
constituted an important feature in the forests of the
carboniferous period; they occur also in more ancient
deposits, and some species belong to the earliest](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25194-250309131223-9e7d779b/85/Innovation-and-the-Creative-Process-Lars-Fuglsang-74-320.jpg)
![attachment of
leaves.
2.
—
A portion of the
same on a larger
scale.
CALAMITE
terrestrial Flora of which any vestiges are known. In
most instances when specimens are found lying in the
same plane with the strata, they are pressed flat, but
those occurring in a vertical position retain their natural
cylindrical form. An outer crust or cylinder of coal
generally invests the stem, but traces of the internal
structure are rarely preserved.
The Calamite consists of a large central column of tissue, surrounded by a
ligneous cylinder. The central part has in most instances perished after the
death of the plant, and the cavity thus left been filled up with mineral matter. As
the hollow ligneous zone is almost always carbonized, and very friable, it is
seldom attached to the cast, and consequently the surface of the latter is
generally jointed and ribbed.
The true external surface of the cortical investment is marked with
longitudinal striæ, without any indications of joints or constrictions; but the
position of the original articulations is indicated in some specimens by the
presence of small verticillate scars, to which leaves were appended[78] as in the
example figured by M. Brongniart, of which Lign. 14, fig. 1, is a reduced figure.
[78] See Mr. Dawes, "On the Structure of Calamites," Proc. Geol. Soc,
1851, vol. vii. p. 197.
Lign. 15. Calamites, in Coal Shale.
Fig. 1.
—
Calamites radiatus, with the remains of
one of the sheaths.—1
/2 nat.
2.
—
Stem, with remains of roots.—1
/2 nat.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25194-250309131223-9e7d779b/85/Innovation-and-the-Creative-Process-Lars-Fuglsang-75-320.jpg)
![FOSSIL FERN
3.
—
Calamites approximatus, showing the
curved lower end of the plant.[79]
—1
/5
nat.
[79] This specimen has been inadvertently drawn with the base
uppermost.
The stellate appearance on the upper part of the stem figured in Lign. 15,
fig. 1, is produced by the zone of leaves which surrounded the joint: this
character is entirely distinct from the sheath of the Equisetum shown in Lign.
12. This specimen points out the importance of carefully examining and
preserving the stone around fossil stems; had this precaution been lost sight of
in this instance, no knowledge would have been obtained of this important
botanical character. It is rarely that any traces of the roots remain; the fossil
figured (fig. 2) is from the Foss. Flor. A beautiful example of the foliage of a
species of Calamites is represented in Lign. 59, fig. 2.
Upright stems of Calamites occur in the Coal formation near Pictou, in North
America; and in one example a group of ten or twelve stems, covering an area
of two square feet, sprung from one root.[80]
[80] Dawson, Geol. Proc. vol. vii. p. 195. See Sir C. Lyell's Travels in
North America, vol. ii. p. 195.
Filicites, or Ferns.
We now arrive at the consideration of one of the most interesting families of
the vascular cryptogamia that adorned the Flora of the ancient world, and the
living species of which impart beauty and elegance to the scenery of the
countries where they prevail. The most essential character of these vegetables,
is that of developing their fructification on the leaves; a fact familiar to every
one who has even but cursorily examined the Polypody growing on our walls, or
the Brake of our hedge-rows and commons. The largest species of British ferns
scarcely exceed four or five feet in height; but the arborescent or tree-ferns, of
warm climates, attain an altitude of from thirty to forty feet. There is too this
peculiarity in the arborescent forms, that while in our indigenous species the
leaves surround the stem, and incline towards the upper part of the plant, the
foliage of the former bends downwards, and spreads out from the crown, or
summit, into an elegant canopy.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25194-250309131223-9e7d779b/85/Innovation-and-the-Creative-Process-Lars-Fuglsang-76-320.jpg)
![veins. There are upwards of two thousand species of living ferns, and in the
fossil kingdom the number is considerable; more than two hundred have been
collected from the carboniferous formation. The recent tree-ferns are confined
almost exclusively to the equinoctial regions; humidity and heat being the
conditions most favourable to their development (Vég. Foss. p. 141. Bd. p. 461.
Wond. p. 727).
From the elegance and diversity of form of their foliage, fossil ferns are the
most remarkable and attractive vegetable remains in the ancient strata. The
greater number are from the coal deposits, the fern-leaves generally occurring
in the schists or shales that form the roof of the beds of coal. Many of the strata
are made up of carbonized fern-leaves and stems closely pressed together. The
roof of a coal-mine, when newly exposed, often presents a most interesting
appearance, from the abundance and variety of leaves, branches, and stems,
that occur either in relief, or impressed on the dark glossy surface. The
specimens selected for illustration exhibit the principal modes of venation on
which the genera are founded.
The fossil genera have been established by M. Ad. Brongniart, from the form
of the leaves and the characters of their venation; that is, the distribution of the
vessels. In the following descriptions some botanical phrases are necessarily
employed; a few terms of frequent occurrence are explained in Lign. 16.
Pachypteris
[81] (thick-fern). Lign. 17.—In this genus from the lower Oolite,
the fronds are pinnated, or bipinnated, the leaflets entire, without visible veins,
having but a single midrib, and contracted at the base. The absence of veins,
and the leaflets not being lobed, are the essential generic distinctions.
[81] The names of the genera are derived from pteris, fern, to which
prefixed a term indicative of the peculiar characters.
Lign. 17. Pachypteris lanceolata.
Inferior Oolite. Whitby.
Sphenopteris (wedge-leaf). Lign. 18.—The leaves are twice or thrice pinnated,
the leaflets wedge-shaped, contracted or narrowest at their base, and more or](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/25194-250309131223-9e7d779b/85/Innovation-and-the-Creative-Process-Lars-Fuglsang-78-320.jpg)
Innovation and the Creative Process Lars Fuglsang
- 1. Instant Ebook Access, One Click Away – Begin at ebookgate.com Innovation and the Creative Process Lars Fuglsang https://ebookgate.com/product/innovation-and-the-creative- process-lars-fuglsang/ OR CLICK BUTTON DOWLOAD EBOOK Get Instant Ebook Downloads – Browse at https://ebookgate.com Click here to visit ebookgate.com and download ebook now
- 2. Instant digital products (PDF, ePub, MOBI) available Download now and explore formats that suit you... Transformational Innovation in the Creative and Cultural Industries 1st Edition Alison Rieple https://ebookgate.com/product/transformational-innovation-in-the- creative-and-cultural-industries-1st-edition-alison-rieple/ ebookgate.com Innovation in the Cultural and Creative Industries 1st Edition Estelle Pellegrin-Boucher https://ebookgate.com/product/innovation-in-the-cultural-and-creative- industries-1st-edition-estelle-pellegrin-boucher/ ebookgate.com Methodology Technology and Innovation in Translation Process Research 1st Edition Fabio Alves https://ebookgate.com/product/methodology-technology-and-innovation- in-translation-process-research-1st-edition-fabio-alves/ ebookgate.com The Creative Process in Music from Mozart to Kurtag 1st Edition Edition William Kinderman https://ebookgate.com/product/the-creative-process-in-music-from- mozart-to-kurtag-1st-edition-edition-william-kinderman/ ebookgate.com
- 3. Play and the artist s creative process the work of Philip Guston and Eduardo Paolozzi 1st Edition Elly Thomas https://ebookgate.com/product/play-and-the-artist-s-creative-process- the-work-of-philip-guston-and-eduardo-paolozzi-1st-edition-elly- thomas/ ebookgate.com Joyce s Creative Process and the Construction of Characters in Ulysses Becoming the Blooms 1st Edition Luca Crispi https://ebookgate.com/product/joyce-s-creative-process-and-the- construction-of-characters-in-ulysses-becoming-the-blooms-1st-edition- luca-crispi/ ebookgate.com Prophet of innovation Joseph Schumpeter and creative destruction 1st Harvard University Press ed Edition Schumpeter https://ebookgate.com/product/prophet-of-innovation-joseph-schumpeter- and-creative-destruction-1st-harvard-university-press-ed-edition- schumpeter/ ebookgate.com Creative Problem Solving for Managers Developing Skills for Decision Making and Innovation 2nd Edition Tony Proctor https://ebookgate.com/product/creative-problem-solving-for-managers- developing-skills-for-decision-making-and-innovation-2nd-edition-tony- proctor/ ebookgate.com The Web Designer s Roadmap Your Creative Process for Web Design Success 1st Edition Giovanni Difeterici https://ebookgate.com/product/the-web-designer-s-roadmap-your- creative-process-for-web-design-success-1st-edition-giovanni- difeterici/ ebookgate.com
- 6. Innovation and the Creative Process
- 7. NEW HORIZONS IN THE ECONOMICS OF INNOVATION Founding Editor: Christopher Freeman, Emeritus Professor of Science Policy, SPRU – Science and Technology Policy Research, University of Sussex, UK Technical innovation is vital to the competitive performance of firms and of nations and for the sustained growth of the world economy. The economics of innovation is an area that has expanded dramatically in recent years and this major series, edited by one of the most distinguished scholars in the field, contributes to the debate and advances in research in this most important area. The main emphasis is on the development and application of new ideas. The series provides a forum for original research in technology, innovation systems and management, industrial organization, technological collaboration, knowledge and innovation, research and development, evolutionary theory and industrial strategy. International in its approach, the series includes some of the best theoretical and empirical work from both well- established researchers and the new generation of scholars. Titles in the series include: Technological Systems and Intersectoral Innovation Flows Riccardo Leoncini and Sandro Montresor Inside the Virtual Product How Organisations Create Knowledge Through Software Luciana D’Adderio Embracing the Knowledge Economy The Dynamic Transformation of the Finnish Innovation System Edited by Gerd Schienstock The Dynamics of Innovation in Eastern Europe Lessons from Estonia Per Högselius Technology and the Decline in Demand for Unskilled Labour A Theoretical Analysis of the US and European Labour Markets Mark Sanders Innovation and Institutions A Multidisciplinary Review of the Study of Innovation Systems Edited by Steven Casper and Frans van Waarden Innovation Strategies in Interdependent States Essays on Smaller Nations, Regions and Cities in a Globalized World John de la Mothe Internationalizing the Internet The Co-evolution of Influence and Technology Byung-Keun Kim Asia’s Innovation Systems in Transition Edited by Bengt-Åke Lundvall, Patarapong Intarakumnerd and Jan Vang-Lauridsen National Innovation, Indicators and Policy Edited by Louise Earl and Fred Gault Innovation and the Creative Process Towards Innovation with Care Edited by Lars Fuglsang
- 8. Innovation and the Creative Process Towards Innovation with Care Edited by Lars Fuglsang Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies (CBIT), Roskilde University, Denmark NEW HORIZONS IN THE ECONOMICS OF INNOVATION Edward Elgar Cheltenham, UK • Northampton, MA, USA
- 9. © Lars Fuglsang 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Published by Edward Elgar Publishing Limited Glensanda House Montpellier Parade Cheltenham Glos GL50 1UA UK Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc. William Pratt House 9 Dewey Court Northampton Massachusetts 01060 USA A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Innovation and the creative process : towards innovation with care / edited by Lars Fuglsang. p. cm.— (New horizons in economics of innovation series) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Technological innovations—Management. 2. Creative ability in business. I. Fuglsang, Lars. HD45.I53719 2008 658.3’14—dc22 2007029864 ISBN 978 1 84720 387 8 Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall
- 10. Contents List of figures vii List of tables viii List of boxes ix List of contributors x Foreword xiv Jon Sundbo INTRODUCTION 1. Innovation with care: what it means 3 Lars Fuglsang PART 1: INVOLVEMENT 2. Innovation and involvement in services 25 Jon Sundbo 3. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) as innovation: taking care of the right customers 48 Jan Mattsson 4. Innovation with care in health care: translation as an alternative metaphor of innovation and change 57 John Damm Scheuer PART 2: IMPORTANCE 5. The public library between social engineering and innovation with care 87 Lars Fuglsang 6. Getting waste to become taste: from the planning of innovation to innovation planning 112 Gestur Hovgaard 7. Public innovation with care: a quantitative approach 131 Lars Fuglsang, Jeppe Højland and John Storm Pedersen v
- 11. 8. Meta-innovations on strategic arenas: innovative management in public organizations 142 Jørn Kjølseth Møller PART 3: POSITIONING 9. The interaction between public science and industry, and the role of the Øresund Science Region’s platform organization 169 Povl A. Hansen and Göran Serin 10. The role of a network organization and Internet-based technologies in clusters: the case of Medicon Valley 193 Ada Scupola and Charles Steinfield 11. The “Mad Max Puzzle”: positioning and the lone inventor 212 Jerome Davis and Lee N. Davis PART 4: SENSEMAKING 12. Sense caring in innovation 237 Peter Hagedorn-Rasmussen 13. Making innovation durable 254 Connie Svabo 14. Intrapreneurship: differences in innovations is a matter of perspective and understanding 275 Hanne Westh Nicolajsen 15. Mindful innovation 295 Poul Bitsch Olsen Index 311 vi Contents
- 12. Figures 8.1. System of innovation on the domain for educational services in Denmark (kindergartens and services for care of children) 154 8.2. Diversity and capability to innovate 159 8.3. Organizational cultures 161 9.1. The Øresund Science Region 180 11.1. Initial positioning: Mad Max and Big Widget Inc. 215 11.2. Mad Max and Big Widget Inc. The impact of expectations 217 11.3. Time line one: two-step sequencing 219 11.4. Time line two: multiple step sequencing 219 13.1. Communication (a) 270 13.2. Communication (b) 270 14.1. The innovation process of ProjectWeb 281 14.2. Screen dump from ProjectWeb (IT department) 282 14.3. Innovation-in-use? 283 vii
- 13. Tables 4.1. Quantitative and qualitative approach to quality development 71 7.1. Innovation in public institutions 134 7.2. The proxy of innovation with care 135 7.3. Innovation and fulfillment of external demands 136 7.4. Innovation and strategic involvement 137 8.1. Institutional pressures on educational organizations 145 8.2. Examples of strategic arenas in educational organizations (kindergartens) 149 8.3. Characteristic of networks as a potential and as action (intention) 162 10.1. Characteristics of Medicon Valley (adapted from the MVA home page, www.mva.org) 202 11.1. Chronology: Kearns v. Ford re: the intermittent windshield wiper 226 14.1. ProjectWeb content and sense-making conditions across projects 289 viii
- 14. Boxes 8.1. Types of innovations and innovation strategies in the public sector 151 8.2. Five roles in the management of innovation 158 12.1. The products offered – and a taste of the unfolding innovation 244 12.2. The e-realtors’ four IT platforms 246 15.1. Definition of mindfulness 300 ix
- 15. Contributors Jerome Davis is currently Canadian Research Chair (Oil and Natural Gas Policy) at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. He has published widely in the fields of oil and natural gas policy, and in diverse fields such as equity markets as institutions, the institutional consequences of incom- plete contracts, project management and analysis, public sector restructur- ing, and the role of prizes as incentives to innovation. Lee N. Davis is Associate Professor at the Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy, and Research Associate at the Centre on Law, Economics and Financial Institutions, both at the Copenhagen Business School. She has conducted research on economic incentives to research and development over the past two decades, with a special focus on the role of intellectual property rights, and published widely in the field. Other research interests include firm appropriability choices, innovation strategy, and aca- demic patenting in the life sciences. Lars Fuglsang (PhD) is Associate Professor in Social Sciences at the Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies (CBIT) at Roskilde University. He has written books and articles in the field of innovation studies, public innovation, service development, and science and technology studies. His research explores how organizational frame- works are created to deal with the impact of innovation and technology on business and society. Peter Hagedorn-Rasmussen (PhD) is Associate Professor of Social Sciences at the Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies (CBIT) at Roskilde University. He has written books and articles in the field of organizational change, management and work life studies. His main research interest is the study of organizations as living compromises, with particular focus on the relationship between manage- ment and work life. Povl A. Hansen is Dr fil. in Economy History from Lund University, Sweden, and Associate Professor in Economic Geography at the Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies (CBIT) at Roskilde x
- 16. University. He has published in the fields of technology, innovation and regional development. His research is in the field of industrial analysis espec- ially focusing on the relationships among innovation processes, industrial structures and transfer of knowledge. He has published many books, reports and articles on technology, business conditions and regional development. Jeppe Højland is a doctoral student of Social Sciences at the Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies (CBIT) at Roskilde University. His PhD dissertation is about new kinds of reward practices in knowledge-intensive firms. He has written an article about the impact on leaders and employees of the Danish public sector reform. His main research interest is innovation within the area of human resource management. Gestur Hovgaard (PhD) is Assistant Professor of Social Sciences at Roskilde University. He has written in the field of innovation and social innovation, and his main fields of interest are within local and regional development. Food chains and food biotechnology are also examined in his research. Jan Mattsson is Professor in business administration at the Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies (CBIT) at Roskilde University. He has held several professorships and visiting pro- fessorships in New Zealand, Australia and Scandinavia. He has authored several books and more than 50 peer-reviewed international publications in journals such as The International Journal of Research in Marketing and Journal of Economic Psychology. He serves on many editorial boards of international journals in marketing and services. He takes part in several international research projects focusing on customer-firm interactions. Jørn Kjølseth Møller (Master of Political Science) is a doctoral student of Social Sciences at the Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies (CBIT) at Roskilde University. He has written books and articles in the field of strategic management and change, service development and psychology in organizations. His main research interest is in strategic management and change of educational organizations in the public sector. Hanne Westh Nicolajsen (PhD) is Assistant Professor at the Center for Information and Communication Technologies (CICT) at the Technical University of Denmark. She has published in the field of the use of infor- mation and communication technologies in organizations. Her research Contributors xi
- 17. examines how information and communication technologies are used in organizations and are shaped by organizational and entrepreneurial factors. Poul Bitsch Olsen (PhD) is Associate Professor of Organization Theory at the Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies (CBIT) at Roskilde University. He has written books and articles on collective knowing and organizing. In particular, his research examines leadership and project work. His research also explores how col- lective practicing is the basis for business innovation, team-sports, value production and academic competence. John Storm Pedersen (PhD) is Associate Professor of Social Sciences at the Department of Society and Globalisation at Roskilde University. He has written books and articles in the field of public administration and man- agement, structural reforms in the public sector and public innovation. His main research interest at present is the impact of the structural reforms in the public sector in Denmark and how public institutions deliver services to the citizens. Pedersen is former CEO of the Mayor’s Office in the munici- pality of Aalborg. John Damm Scheuer (PhD) is Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies (CBIT) at Roskilde University. His main research interest and focus is the study of the encounter of innovative ideas and local practice in private as well as public organizations. The encounter is studied as implementation, diffusion or translation processes. But also new and innovative ways of theorizing about “the encounter” and local organizing processes are explored. Ada Scupola (PhD) is Associate Professor at the Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies (CBIT), Roskilde University. She has published articles and books in the area of information technology innovation, especially in the field of adoption, diffusion and use of information technologies such as e-commerce and e-services in SMEs and industrial clusters. Her research focuses primarily on how organiza- tional and industrial factors shape the development, adoption, implemen- tation, use, and effects of such technologies. Göran Serin (Dr) earned his degree in Economic History and is Associate Professor in Business Administration at the Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies (CBIT), Roskilde University. He has extensive research experience within the fields of technology, innovation and regional development. He has a particular interest in industrial analysis and xii Contributors
- 18. industrial restructuring and regional development, on which he has pub- lished many articles and books. In recent years, his research has especially focused on analysing regional integration in cross-border regions. Charles Steinfield (PhD) is Professor and Chair of the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media at Michigan State University. He has published books and articles in the area of organizations and use of information and communication technologies. His research examines how individual and organizational factors shape the development, adoption, use and effects of such technologies. Jon Sundbo is Professor in Business Administration at the Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies (CBIT), Roskilde University. He is director of the Center for Service Studies and coordinator of the Department’s research area in innovation and change processes in services and manufacturing. He has published extensively in the fields of innovation, service management and the development of the service sector, tourism and organization. He has published articles in several journals on innovation, entrepreneurship, service and management and has authored several books, among these The Theory of Innovation and The Strategic Management of Innovation. Connie Svabo (Master in Business Administration) is PhD Fellow at the Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies (CBIT) at Roskilde University. She has written articles and edited books about practice-based learning. She has several years of professional expe- rience in consultancy work and commercial writing. Her main research interests are organization, materiality and esthetic forms of knowing. Contributors xiii
- 19. Foreword This book presents new thoughts and research on innovation. Innovation with care emphasizes both the care for people and the care for doing inno- vation in a proper way. Most innovative attempts fail and create economic loss and individual disappointment. Another book in the overwhelming stream of books on innovation? Can it contribute with new knowledge? We believe it can by taking a primarily sociological approach to innovation. Not that the economic aspects are forgotten, but the sociological aspects are emphasized complimentary to the economic ones. This is not very common in innovation literature. The individual – the entrepreneur – has been emphasized, but rarely the social processes with different actors and roles and innovation as an interactive process. In the increasing contemporary theoretical and practical interest for innovation, the social aspects of the innovation process has often been for- gotten. Emphasis has primarily been on economic processes and policy. However, innovation is a process that is carried out by people in interaction with people. It may be that the result of the process is part of the market economy, but the process itself is a social process where the economic results are not at all sure. Recently the social processes have come more into focus. Innovation projects, creativity and user-involvement have become objects in the front research. This book is one contribution to this movement. The book is a presentation of more than 15 years of research in the Innovation Research Group at Roskilde University in Denmark. In this group we have had a preference for the out-of-mainstream approaches to innovation: Innovation in services and the experience economy, innovation as non-sophisticated, quick practical ideas, continuous incremental inno- vation, user/customers’and employees’role in the innovation process, inno- vation as an organizational sensemaking process and so on. This has been amusing and informative for us and we believe it can provide new knowl- edge for researchers, students and others interested in innovation as both an economic and a social phenomenon. We think that the future for the phenomenon of innovation – and thus for innovation research and practical innovation work in firms and societies – is to return to the original point of departure: A general change of behav- ior and economic structures – social and economic change. We believe that xiv
- 20. innovation in the future will be a much more comprehensive phenomenon than just R&D, entrepreneurship as establishment of new high-tech firms or narrow industrial policy. Social entrepreneurship as solving social prob- lems, innovation as a value creating organizational development factor and as a collective social activity in- or outside the formal economy will prob- ably be future highlights within innovation research. This will develop inno- vation theory and make it more exciting, but also more diffuse since it will concern social change in general. The latter will challenge the theory devel- opment, but there is no way around this if we want to explain economic development, which in the future will concern phenomena such as lifestyle, experience, corporate identity, solution of social problems and so on. Jon Sundbo Professor of Innovation and Business Administration Co-ordinator of the Innovation Research Group Roskilde University, Denmark Foreword xv
- 22. Introduction
- 24. 1. Innovation with care: what it means Lars Fuglsang The purpose of this book is to find new ways to understand and analyse the phenomenon of innovation within the frameworks of “strategic reflex- ivity” (Sundbo and Fuglsang, 2002; Fuglsang and Sundbo, 2005) as well as “open innovation” (Chesbrough, 2003). The book presents new insights into mechanisms that are important for benefiting from innovation across sectors, organizations and people. It deals with tensions and paradoxes in innovative activities between, for example, variety and selection, crea- tivity and innovation, or between business innovation and social innova- tion – rather than seeing innovation from one particular point of view. “Innovation with care” means that innovation is seen as something that takes place among many actors having different perspectives, ideas and cul- tures that have to be carefully woven together in order to achieve the benefits of innovation. We understand innovation as an interactive process that involves many people and often also changing people across sectors. Innovation is there- fore a common activity, which is not restricted to special groups of persons such as “the creative class”or “symbol analysts”or people working in R&D labs. Innovation is a process that increasingly engages ideas and opinions from many different people. These are opinions and ideas that have to be expressed but also selected and aggregated. Innovation requires diversity and collectivity at the same time, and the balance between the two is a crucial aspect of innovative activities today. This balance is affected both by the market and by other social and organizational forces. We examine how social and organizational forces are important to that balance and these tensions. In doing so, the book tries to distinguish between different organizational and societal mechanisms of diversity and collectivity, especially four. These are: involvement, importance, position- ing and sensemaking. These all operate on different levels (micro and macro) that can be understood and analysed from a sociological and eco- nomic perspective (see later). Involvement is a mechanism of diversity mostly at the organizational level, where people can deliberately involve others in an exchange of experi- ences and considerations of workable ideas. Involvement presumes that 3
- 25. those who are involved are relatively independent and can speak freely about their opinions. Importance is a mechanism of collectivity. It presumes that certain init- iatives are seen as better than others and therefore are exposed and diffused more widely, so that people can adopt them or learn from them. The notion of importance also implies that we are here not only speaking of the market mechanism, but also of mechanisms that involve an element of voice (not just choice). Hence, importance is a social mechanism of aggregation, selec- tion and diffusion. Positioning is a mechanism of diversity at the societal level. It requires that people have the freedom to pursue their economic and social interests and can express their opinions about ideas they perceive to be socially effective or desirable. According to this mechanism, people can position themselves as actors in innovation and economic development. Finally, sensemaking is a mechanism of collectivity at the micro-level, where people try to make sense of their experiences and thereby to discover, not so much what is perceived as important and wise in the larger context, but what is appropriate and meaningful in a specific context. The different chapters of the book deal in different ways with these crosscutting aspects of innovation. Some have a stronger focus on the macro-level and some on the micro-level. Some tend to stress diversity and others collectivity. Therefore, the chapters have been grouped in different sections entitled involvement, importance, positioning and sensemaking. Nevertheless, what binds together all of the chapters is the attempt to see innovation from a broader perspective and at the systemic level where the tensions between actors, and between diversity and collectivity, can be studied. BACKGROUND Innovation with care is generally an approach to innovation that starts from the following premises: 1. that innovation and the way in which innovation takes place is import- ant to economic growth and social development; 2. that the concept of innovation has to be better understood in terms of how it can be applied in practice, especially through case-studies; and 3. that innovation in practice requires a reflexive approach that takes into account both economic and social elements, as well as tensions across sectors, organizations and people. 4 Introduction
- 26. Innovation with care grows out of research undertaken at Roskilde University over recent decades. This research has focused upon how inno- vation is changing from a technological and industrial mode to a reflexive mode involving many types of institutions, sectors, companies and social groups (Fuglsang and Sundbo, 2005; Sundbo and Fuglsang, 2001). This calls for a new conceptualization of innovation as well as social develop- ment, which can take into account the heterogeneity of relationships that evolve around innovative activities. Today, the innovative resources are much more widely distributed throughout society than just a few decades ago (Chesbrough, 2003). Innova- tion is no longer based in companies’ R&D departments, or in the state’s large-scale projects. Innovation can be understood as an interactive process that involves many and changing actors over time, and which serves mul- tiple concerns and conglomerates of different users. This also makes it more challenging for people to integrate different ideas and opinions about inno- vation, to balance goals and means, and to create frameworks of mutual communication, collaboration and understanding. It becomes critical to analyse how this heterogeneity among sectors, organizations and people can be managed in different ways, and in different social and strategic arenas. This historical approach to innovation can also be seen as being opposed to a more homogeneous approach to innovation where innovation is seen as something which is planned and managed in a more straightforward and detailed way. The heterogeneity of innovation today means that innov- ative activities cannot be easily controlled through detailed planning, but that opportunities for innovation have to be continuously evaluated, inter- preted and interfered with. Innovative organizations become interpretative systems (Daft and Weick, 1984; Fuglsang and Sundbo, 2005). They try to create some sense of direction and integrate people into changes by making interpretations about the changing opportunities of the organization, and how skills and opportunity can be adjusted to each other. The main question, which should be explored, is therefore how a proper environment for innovation can be constructed that takes into account these complex mechanisms of diversity and collectivity. Furthermore, an approach that uses various types of case studies in combination with other research techniques may turn out to be an important way in which such mechanisms can be better understood. It requires a more problem- and action-oriented approach to the study of innovation. The purpose of the book is to demonstrate that this approach is a fruit- ful approach to innovation. Along these lines, innovation is, in our view, more about interpretation than planning, more about heterogeneity and tension than homogeneity and control, more about opinion than choice, Innovation with care 5
- 27. and more about wisdom than science. The book will illustrate the value of innovation with care through a number of interesting cases. CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION In most definitions of innovation, innovation consists of two aspects: creativity and innovation (Amabile et al., 1996), invention and diffusion (Rogers, 1995), exploration and exploitation (March, 1991), or variation and selection (Nelson and Winter, 1977). This means that innovation is seen as consisting of two integrated processes. New appropriate ideas or inventions have to be explored in a creative way. In addition to this, there is another parallel process going on where these ideas are aggregated, selected, diffused, implemented and exploited. The interaction between these two sides of innovation is critical. For example, Teresa Amabile, who has studied creativity, defines inno- vation in the following way. “We define innovation as the successful imple- mentation of creative ideas within an organization. In this view, creativity by individuals and teams is a starting point for innovation; the first is neces- sary but not sufficient condition for the second” (Amabile et al., 1996: 1154–5). Mulgan and Albery who have studied public and social innovation have defined innovation in a similar vein: “We define innovation as ‘new ideas that work’. To be more precise: Successful innovation is the creation and implementation of new processes, products, services and methods of deliv- ery which result in significant improvements in outcomes efficiency, effectiveness or quality” (Mulgan and Albury, 2003: 3). And Sundbo (1998: 12) in a book about service innovation gives the fol- lowing definition: “I will use ‘innovation’ to describe the effort to develop an element that has already been invented, so that it has a practical- commercial use, and to gain the acceptance of this element.” Most of these definitions of innovation have their origins in Schumpeter’s original definition of innovation in his Theory of Economic Development. In that book, Schumpeter is, among other things, conceiving the function of the entrepreneur for economic development as someone who goes against the mainstream. In his definition of innovation, Schumpeter stresses both the ability of the entrepreneur to create entirely “new combinations” and to open up new markets and teach the consumers to use innovations (Schumpeter, 1934, 1969: 65–6). This double sidedness of innovation is at the core of this book as it is also the core of many descriptions of creativity. For example, in his book about creativity, Csikszentmihalyi makes a distinction between the domain of 6 Introduction
- 28. creativity and the field of creativity (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996). The domain is the specific area in which someone is creative, for example in science, art or politics. The field is the wider environment in which creativity is recog- nized and stimulated. It is often the field of innovation, rather than the domain, which explains, according to Csikszentmihalyi, why some organ- izations are more creative than others, for example why Florence was a par- ticular creative city in the Florentine renaissance. On the other hand, in this approach, we should not ignore the critical factors that are important to creativity or the social psychology of creativity. For example, in her work on the social psychology of creativity, Teresa M. Amabile has examined the proposition that intrinsic motivation is crucial to creativity (Amabile, 1996). Creativity is, as Schumpeter explained, an act that is often motivated by itself rather than by external requirements or extrinsic motivations. Creativity also requires that people are situated in a domain where they possess the necessary domain-relevant skills – rather than being put into a domain where they possess no such skills. To treat creativity with care means that people are not moved to a domain where they possess no domain relevant skills, and that intrinsic motivation is not entirely replaced by extrinsic motivation. This may increase the chances that creative results are appropriate and not bizarre or eccentric. In this way creativeness means the ability to create new innova- tive results that are meaningful and appropriate. Understood in this way, the right microenvironment for creativity increases the chances of creative ideas that are also appropriate to innovation. BUSINESS INNOVATION AND SOCIAL INNOVATION Innovation with care is also an approach to innovation which focuses upon the interdependencies that exist within social and economic development between business innovations on the one hand, and “social innovations”on the other – in addition to the interaction of creativity and innovation. In the perspective of social innovation, the relation between creativity and innovation, variation and selection, gains another meaning, as we shall briefly explore in the following. Social innovations are innovations based in social goals and social processes. Social innovation (Young Foundation, 2006) and business inno- vation, however, often overlap and intertwine. A mobile telephone is a social innovation and a business innovation at the same time: it serves a social goal for those who use it, and it generates economic value for those who produce it and for society. A new model of a mobile telephone is perhaps not necessarily a social innovation if it does not serve a particular (new) Innovation with care 7
- 29. social goal. To understand and analyse the social goal and value of an inno- vation can be an important driver of business innovation. Another aspect of social innovation besides the social goal and social value is the social process and diffusion of innovation. All processes of innovation, business innovations, social innovations or innovation with care, could, as indicated, be said to consist of two related processes: explor- ation and exploitation (March, 1991), variation and selection (Nelson and Winter, 1977), or invention and diffusion (Rogers, 1995). Ideas are devel- oped, and then some of these ideas are selected and scaled up as more important or wiser than others. The selection mechanism can be “the wisdom of the crowds” (Surowiecki, 2004), or it may be opinion-makers or society’s elite that attempt to “pick the winner”. Seen from the perspective of business innovation, the market mechanism is crucial to this tension and the transition between invention and diffusion. The “wisdom of the crowd” is here expressed by consumer choice implying that certain ideas are picked by the crowd as being more effective or in some sense better than others. Seen from the perspective of a social innovation and innovation with care, the market is not the only mechanisms of dif- fusion and scaling up. Here, other social mechanisms of aggregation, selec- tion and diffusion are important too (see Rogers, 1995), and these are sometimes more difficult to come to grips with from an analytical point of view. In some cases, as in public innovation, the market mechanisms may be entirely missing, and therefore the social mechanisms of aggregation, selec- tion and diffusion of innovation present an even more challenging task when analysing it at the theoretical level and constructing it at the practi- cal level. For example, the market mechanism cannot always be applied to the selection of adequate learning or teaching tools in schools. Here, inputs from many professionals and experts and even systemic reviews and demonstrations of these inputs may be needed as a basis for selection. In other cases, the social selection and diffusion of innovation is intertwined with some kind of market mechanism, where the behavior of the user and user choice in combination with user voice may be relevant. This is typical for public television for example. Innovation with care is therefore an approach to innovation that tries to pay more attention to social mechanisms of diffusion and scaling up than is usual, and to analyse the complex interactions that take place between market mechanisms and social mechanisms, understood as a mechanism of selection and diffusion. In some cases, business innovations and social innovations, as men- tioned, strongly overlap. In other cases social innovations are separate domains but still crucial to business innovation. The university is a social 8 Introduction
- 30. innovation in its own domain, which still plays a crucial role for economic and social development more broadly. Health is dependent on development of commercial drugs as well as a range of social innovations including the health system itself. The sewerage system is a social innovation that is crucial for health conditions. Wikipedia is a social innovation that may end up as a commercial innovation, but initially it started out as a social idea. Social innovations, such as a library or a laboratory, provide social struc- tures that inform the chances of discovery, creativity and innovation more broadly in society. In some cases, social innovations are therefore domain specific, in other cases they provide a different perspective on business innovation, as in the case of the mobile phone or the use of SMSs. The practical relevance of this approach is that there is a difficult balance to maintain within social and economic development between market mechanisms on the one hand, and social mechanisms of innovations on the other. Furthermore, it becomes important to investigate how social mechanisms can be constructed. More energy and resources could be devoted to the study of the social sides of innovations because they are crucial to innovations both to the chances of creative discoveries and to the robust and meaningful application and implementation of these dis- coveries in business and society. As such, social mechanisms of innovation also inspire economic development more broadly and can be pertinent to the implementation and the commercial exploitations of innovations. Innovation with care is in this way really a broad concept for the produc- tive tensions and balance between the commercial and the social sides of innovation. Innovation with care is also an approach to innovation which is different from social engineering. Innovation with care represents, as we define it, an incremental way to improve society and its institutions, and is based in the social values and independent opinions of many citizens in the context of, for example, a nation, that have to give their support to it. It corresponds more or less to Karl Popper’s idea of “piecemeal”social change as opposed to utopian social engineering, hence it is a critical-reflective and incremen- tal approach to innovation (see Popper, 1962). Innovation with care is a complex and a time-consuming process where much can go wrong, because of the many unintended consequences and risks associated with innovation. Therefore, we need a careful approach to innovation where many perspectives and ideas are woven together in a careful way. Another important issue here is that innovation can be motivated in many ways as Schumpeter already pointed out in his Theory of Economic Development. Profit is one motive, but the creation of a small kingdom or the wish to solve concrete problems could be other reasons for people to Innovation with care 9
- 31. engage in innovation. Many important innovations cannot, initially, be, in a meaningful way, understood directly as commercial innovations, driven by profits, since their “business model” sometimes is very unclear. Google and Wikipedia are two prominent examples. Other examples are those development projects that take place in the name of cultural policies. For example, when politicians, volunteers, business leaders and social entrepre- neurs go together to develop their municipality, the direct commercial spin- offs are usually very difficult to calculate and understand. This kind of innovation is better described as a social innovation of its own purpose and in its own right that may be complementary to business innovations in the municipality, for example the well functioning of the labour market and the chances of creativity and meaningful innovation. Social innovations such as schools, universities, libraries, and so on can be driven by public or private organizations. Voluntary organizations or enthusiasts as well as business organizations can also drive social inno- vations, and sometimes we tend to forget the significance of these initiatives. For example, in the case of the so-called information society, the field of social innovations is often much more important to discovering needs and socially effective solutions to them than is normally understood. Social or public entrepreneurs and social institutions can play a crucial role for devel- oping network technologies to people that eventually become real resources to them. These kinds of innovations can inspire business innovations and can lead to the development of highly meaningful commercial innovations. But the field of social innovations is very poorly understood today in com- parison with many other high-profile commercial innovations. There is a hidden economy of social and volunteer innovation at risk here, which needs to be explored in order to identify good examples of socially effective ideas that others might be able to learn from. A main difficulty within the field of social innovation and innovation with care is, however, that the impact of this approach is difficult to define and measure. For example, what is the impact of the university? What is the impact of the library and the school? It can be explained in broad terms, but it is much more difficult to measure and analyse than commer- cial innovations. Indeed, in some cases, certain success criteria can be created, such as the impact of the health system or a particular medical treatment on life expectancy. Still, even in this case, the complex interaction of treatment, sanitary conditions and nursing are very difficult to explain. And in many other cases, the measurement of impact is a very difficult issue. Furthermore, the impact of social innovation and innovation with care on business innovation is an extremely complicated issue in itself. For example, what is the impact of the public library on business innovation? Does it in one way or another improve the quality of the work force? 10 Introduction
- 32. But these difficulties of measuring the impact of social innovation should not mean that we neglect to throw more light on these issues and their cri- tical impact on society. SCHUMPETER I, II AND III Our approach to innovation is partly inspired by the tensions in Joseph Schumpeter’s work between his early work, so-called Schumpeter I, and the late work, so-called Schumpeter II (see Phillips, 1971 for a discussion). One might say that our approach is an attempt to formulate a Schumpeter III approach that reconsiders the wider context of innovation. In the early work, Schumpeter stressed the role of the entrepreneur (Schumpeter, 1934, 1969). The entrepreneur is described as a special type of person with a special motivation, which is not necessarily driven by profits. The entrepreneur is a dynamic person outside the mainstream, and has a function for changing economic structures. In his later work, by contrast, Schumpeter thought that the social function of the entrepreneur had disap- peared (Schumpeter, 1947). He thought that innovation had become a routine-activity in the labs of the modern business corporation. Schumpeter claimed that the entrepreneur was no longer a very relevant type since inno- ation had become more integrated into society. The particular distinction between the entrepreneur and routine-based innovation in Schumpeter’s work is important here. But what also matters is that Schumpeter’s work tells us that different forms or modes of inno- vation exist, such as the entrepreneurial form in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the routine-based form in the mid-twentieth century. Furthermore, there may be different motives and rationales behind the various approaches to innovation as well. What we are missing in Schumpeter’s work is, perhaps, a recognition that these two forms of innovation may exist at the same time and in some ways are interdependent. Schumpeter, by contrast, seems to think that one his- torical period (that of heroic entrepreneurs) is being entirely replaced by another (that of the large corporations). Clearly, from what we know today, this is wrong. There is still a function for entrepreneurs, and today new forms of entrepreneurship are being promoted, such as social entrepre- neurship and public entrepreneurship. They have, however, to be under- stood at the systemic level rather than at the level of the individual. The distinction between Schumpeter II and Schumpeter III is of the same character as the distinction between Schumpeter I and Schumpeter II. These three approaches represent different frameworks of innovations, where innovations proceed in different ways, are motivated by different factors, Innovation with care 11
- 33. aggregated, selected and diffused in different ways, and often crystallize into different kinds of institutions with different underlying rationales. What we argue, along with Chesbrough (2003), is that innovation today is no longer only based in the routines of R&D inside large corporations. But we also argue that this leads to the formation of new mechanisms of creativity and diffusion of innovation that can be understood at the systemic level. In the field of science studies, Nowotny and others have been discussing so-called mode II science, where external requirements come to play a growing role (Nowotny et al., 2001). They use the metaphor of “agora” to describe how a public arena of science is formed where the quality and the relevance of science is being discussed by scientists as well as by citizens and politicians. In the same way we argue that a new mode of innovation is emerging, the Schumpeter III approach, where new mech- anisms of creativity and diffusion of innovation are becoming important, and where market mechanisms and social mechanisms are blended in new ways. For example, we argue that new strategic arenas of innovation are being formed to which many types of actors are linked, such as universities, companies, government institutions and user groups. Furthermore, emp- loyees and consumers are interlinked in new ways at the systemic rather than only the individual level. One important expression of Schumpeter III that we want to stress in this book is innovation in services. Service providers are very dependent on their front personnel and their ideas, because the services are often co- produced by the consumer and co-consumed by the provider, and the con- crete work that goes into this is often difficult to describe in very precise terms. Some innovations in services are indeed business innovations, but many innovations may be better explained as social innovations in the sense that they are more related to the problem-oriented work of the front per- sonnel than directly to a commercial strategy. It is based in the interpre- tation and understanding of a situated problem. This problem-orientation can also often be interlinked with the life-story, intrinsic motivation and professional pride of the service-worker. Of course, the clever service provider will try to involve the service worker as much as possible in the business development, because he wants “ideas that work” (Mulgan and Young) drawn from the experience of the service worker. This becomes even more crucial today under the new ‘Schumpeter III paradigm.’ The employee and the consumer therefore become more and more involved at the systemic level in innovation activ- ities, rather than they are interacting and developing services only in indi- vidual face-to-face-relationships. Both in the private and in the public sector, the “journey to the interface” becomes an important theme (Parker and Heapy, 2006), that is the journey 12 Introduction
- 34. to the interface between the front personnel and the consumer. Experiences in the front have to be explored and collected in a more systematic way. In this journey, the interpretation and understanding of the needs of the consumer and the social goals involved in consumer behavior in a broader sense becomes crucial. In the “journey to the interface” the knowledge and experi- ence of the front-personnel is therefore also critical. At the same time, the front-personnel are seen as people who should not act on their own, but on behalf of the system (see Parker and Heapy, 2006). In this way, the issue becomes one of how people can learn from each other and how the good ideas can to be scaled up and diffused across and between people in organizations. This systemic orientation towards external ideas and their combination with internal experiences is an important aspect of the Schumpeter III model. The diffusion of the Internet and WEB2 and the many new services that are offered on the Internet provide plenty of examples of innovation with care where the innovative resources are highly distributed and where some innovative ideas are being systematically collected and scaled up, or picked by the crowd or through other mechanisms of selection. For one thing, these services are often developed as social innovations in a community of prac- tice and then eventually they develop into business innovations. Facebook is an example of this (see Ellison et al., 2006). It was initially a network tech- nology inspired by earlier ways to introduce students to each other using photographs in a physical “facebook”. Then it was developed by a student at Harvard University into a worldwide e-based service for students. It will probably evolve into a commercial innovation in time to come. Schumpeter III is a mode of innovation where the interpretation, explor- ation and exploitation of external ideas as well as their combination with internal experiences and ideas become increasingly important (Chesbrough, 2003), and where the diffusion and scaling up of ideas that are thought to be better take new forms in the market as well as society and in organiz- ations, as we shall explore in this book. DIVERSITY AND COLLECTIVITY, VARIETY AND SELECTION Innovation requires diversity and collectivity, variety and selection, cre- ativity and innovation at the same time. The balance between the two sides of the coins is a crucial aspect of innovation – and crucial to this book. This balance we understand as affected both by the market and by other social and organizational forces. The book tries to distinguish between different analytical perspectives that can be helpful for studying these balances or tensions. As a way to Innovation with care 13
- 35. organize the chapters of the book we can discern four broad analytical perspectives. These are as previously mentioned: involvement, importance, positioning and sensemaking. These should be understood as different broad perspectives on diversity and collectivity on different levels. What follows is a brief description of these analytical perspectives that organize the chapters of the book after which the single chapters will be presented. Involvement Involvement means that innovators can seek to involve many opinions and ideas during innovation. Often, for innovation to take place, it is important that employees and users are involved in the exploration of inventions and new “ideas that work.” How this involvement can take place is a compli- cated issue and a fruitful ground for new research as well as case-studies. Involvement is a mechanism of diversity or variety, but it also requires that management carefully selects some of the ideas while others are dis- missed. Hence, involvement requires a careful approach to both variation and selection, or, as it is explained in Sundbo’s chapter, to reflexivity and strategy-making at the same time. Most obviously, employees can be involved in innovation activities. But consumers can also sometimes be involved. For one thing, they can be involved through the employees having many years of experience with con- sumers. The employees’ discovery of consumer needs can sometimes be crucial for improving goods and services. This is true especially in services and public services. In some cases, the exploration of consumer needs may be more difficult than in others. For example, in the public sector, a principle of universal- ism is often important, and employees for good reasons have to think in terms of rules and public law rather than individual needs. To listen more carefully to individual citizens or to make use of employees’ experiences with them may almost constitute a paradigm shift in the public sector. Furthermore, while in many settings involvement of employees and con- sumers may work in the individual case, in the changing context of inno- vation, the involvement of employees and consumers must, as mentioned, increasingly take place in a systemic way. People must learn to act on behalf of the company system rather than on behalf of themselves. This also requires a careful balancing of strategy and reflexivity. Importance Importance stresses the principle that some ideas may tend to become more widely diffused than others. Importance therefore refers to a mechanism of 14 Introduction
- 36. collectivity and selection. It presumes that certain initiatives are perceived as better or more appropriate than others and therefore are recognized by more people, and that people are willing to adopt them or learn from them. The notion of importance also implies that we are not only speaking of the market mechanism, but also of a mechanism that involves an element of voice. The market mechanism cannot always be used to scale up and diffuse important ideas. Thus, in many institutional settings, and in the context of many services, people cannot, in practice, make use of the market mechanism, because they are dependent on the services that are provided where they live and work, such as schools, kindergartens, res- taurants, local cultural offers and so on. To find ways other than the market mechanism to promote experiences, make visible the good ideas and scale up the better initiatives so that others can learn from them is a major challenge for many social and public services. Positioning Positioning means that companies and institutions can position themselves as actors in economic change and innovation. They are not role-takers in a passive way, but they can actively position and reposition themselves in relation to each other. Nevertheless, in the context of increasing complex- ity, it may sometimes be quite challenging to acknowledge and recognize each other’s competences and qualities. Positioning is a mechanism of diversity or variety at the societal level. It requires that people have the autonomy to pursue economic and social interests and can express their opinions about ideas they perceive to be rele- vant – and can communicate what their own contribution to innovation and development may be. Positioning can be thought of as something that takes place both among individual persons and among institutions. For example, classical entrepre- neurship is an embodiment of positioning, where individual persons position themself in relation to other people. But also institutions, such as universi- ties, schools and libraries, have a need to position themselves in order to demonstrate their value to others. Hence, the university is not the same as an R&D lab in a private firm and the public library is not the same as Google (two examples from this book). They each have to position themselves in order to make clear what their individual gift is. How can they do this? Sensemaking Sensemaking means (following Weick, 1995) that there must be room for continuous sensemaking in connection with innovation processes in order Innovation with care 15
- 37. for people to discover and exploit new experiences and ideas and make them intelligible among each other. Managers and employees must create a “mindful environment”where they collectively can make sense of people’s changing perceptions and ideas of social and economic opportunities. Sensemaking is a mechanism of collectivity or selection at the micro- level, where people together try to make sense of changes and thereby to discover, not so much what is perceived as important and wise in the larger context, but what is appropriate and meaningful in a specific situated context. A metaphor for sensemaking, which is used in this book in several chap- ters, is that of “translation.” Translation means that new ideas, goods and services are translated or transformed by people to fit the local context before they can be used. This is critical in the emerging context of open innovation and strategic reflexivity. External ideas have to be adapted to the local context before they can be used, and sometimes, when it is difficult to “translate” them, they must be dropped. Perhaps this is also an approach to innovation that has a particularly strong hold on Scandinavian societies. Here the adoption of ideas, inven- tions and technologies from the outside world, and the attempt to translate them into something locally valuable, has been a critical aspect of eco- nomic development and the development of the welfare states. THE CHAPTERS OF THE BOOK All of the chapters in the book deal with certain tensions or paradoxes in innovation, as described above, which relate to involvement, importance, positioning, or sensemaking. Innovation with care is thus an approach that seeks to analyse and understand how people in empirical cases are dealing carefully with these tensions and paradoxes. In the first section of the book about “involvement,”we investigate tensions between engaging people’s opinions and ideas on the one hand, and the overall strategy of a company or an organization on the other. Jon Sundbo examines tensions in organizations between the involvement of employees in innovation, and care for the overall strategy process of a company or an organization. Sundbo pays attention particularly to inno- vation in services, and his chapter includes a review of the literature on service innovation with respect to the involvement of employees. Sundbo’s chapter also draws on a multiple case approach to service firms. Sundbo concludes that service innovations are based on care for the strategic reflexive processes as well as the actors and roles involved in service production. This care does 16 Introduction
- 38. not only mean the nursing of the people and encouraging intrapreneurship, but also restrictions and a strict decision process concerning new ideas and innovation projects. Jan Mattsson examines tensions in an organization between different facets of care that are important to working with Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Taking care is the physical handling of the CRM innovation process and running the subsequent CRM system. Caring for customers and employees is a psychological sensitivity to how customers and employees react when faced with change and re-organization. Careful operation means that safeguards are in place and care is taken when design- ing the system to ascertain the increased value can be offered to customers in exchange for the extra effort of data input and co-ordination. John Damm Scheuer explores tensions that emerge in an organization when a general idea travels into the organization and is translated into something useful by the people inside that organization. In a case study of innovation in health care (the case of the “clinical pathway”), he argues that the innovation process may be better understood if theorized as a transla- tion rather than an implementation or rationally planned process. Scheuer also argues that the concept of “innovation with care” may be defined as local translators’ translation of innovative ideas in a way that tests the pros and cons of an idea in relation to local knowledge and takes appropriate steps to integrate those elements of the idea. The second section of the book is about “importance.” It examines how certain ideas are scaled up and selected and in some sense become more important than others, in a careful balancing of variation and selection, or exploration and exploitation. Lars Fuglsang explores some of the tensions between variation and selection in the context of public innovation. Through a case study of the Danish public library, he tries to build an analytical framework for analyz- ing innovation with care in the public sector. He shows how the mode of innovation is partly changing from “institutional innovation” to “open innovation.” This leads to a quest for mechanisms of variation and selec- tion, rather than, for example, mechanisms of homogenization among public institutions. Fuglsang argues that new social and strategic arenas are created in the library case, which enables variation and selection, and the diffusion of important new ideas. Gestur Hovgaard examines tensions that exist between exploration and exploitation, as well as stability and change, in the construction of an inno- vative new company, which is the Danish food-ingredient company Danmark Protein (DP). Today it is incorporated within the dairy giant Arla Innovation. Hovgaard shows how exploration and exploitation are activities that vary, due to different modes of innovation. This is a similar argument to Innovation with care 17
- 39. the one made by Fuglsang in his chapter. Finding a proper balance between exploration and exploitation is a key to the success of a company. This requires an “interpretative tradition,” mutual networking and a common understanding. This is consistent with both Sundbo and Fuglsang in this volume. Lars Fuglsang, Jeppe Højland and John Storm Pedersen applies a quan- titative analysis to investigate tensions between variation and selection again in the public sector. They present a survey, which has been sent to leaders in Danish public institutions about innovation activities. The chapter seeks to define a proxy for innovation with care in order to quan- tify its impact on various output measures. The survey shows that inno- vation does take place in the public sector, and that variation rather than copying is the rule. This is consistent with Møller’s findings (see below). The chapter also documents that innovation with care is an effective way of dealing with external requirements. Jørn Kjølseth Møller examines tensions between path-dependency and diversity in the public sector with a special view to a “Management Greenhouse”created by employers and employees’organizations in Danish municipalities. He argues that diversity in the public sector is a more common phenomenon than normally understood in, for example, neo- institutional theories. He shows how the potential for innovative manage- ment in public organizations is determined by the institutional context, where the public institutions are functioning. Similarly to Hansen and Serin (see below) and Fuglsang (the arena approach) he argues that these issues are incorporated into strategic arenas, where specific types of inter- ests are expressed, specific issues negotiated and specific rules of the game established. The Management Greenhouse is an example of this. In the third section of the book, three chapters discuss how actors can position themselves in various ways in the broader, macro-economic context of innovation – and what tools are available for that. Povl A. Hansen and Göran Serin investigate tensions between universi- ties and firms and different notions of public and private research. By way of a case study of Øresund Science Region they argue that a “platform organ- ization” can be seen as a solution to these tensions when universities and firms have different perspectives on the purpose and structure of research. According to Hansen and Serin, a platform organization can promote a caring approach among the different institutions to each other’s approaches. Hansen and Serin use the so-called triple helix model of government- university-industry interaction to explain the role of the platform organiza- tion as a framework for interaction and positioning. Ada Scupola and Charles Steinfield explore the tensions that exist between firms’ globalization and localization perspectives, and how these 18 Introduction
- 40. differing perspectives can be “taken care of”. Through a case study of Medicon Valley, a leading biotechnology cluster in Denmark, they show how Internet-based technologies and a number of additional critical activi- ties can contribute to and support the development of localized economies such as industrial clusters, while also contributing to the globalization of the economy by connecting companies and clusters of companies across different regions of the world. Jerome Davies and Lee N. Davies examine tensions between an individ- ual inventor (the “Mad Max”) and the commercial context in which that inventor has to position himself. The chapter refers to a case study of inven- tor Robert Kearns and his lawsuit against the American and European automobile industry. Davies and Davies argue that many inventions may not have any commercial potential to begin with, irrespective of what the “mad” inventor may have thought. Although inventors are “ripped off,” this may be more a reflection of their lack of positioning skills than of any major wrong-doing on the part of their financial partners. Those inventors who have been “ripped off,” as was the case with Kearns, might have avoided this fate by observing the signals of their opposite number more “carefully.” In the final section of the book about “sensemaking,” four chapters examine tensions and paradoxes at the micro-level that are critical to benefiting from innovation. Peter Hagedorn-Rasmussen analyses tensions between strategy and sensemaking by way of a case-study of a e-realtor company under creation. “Care” describes, according to Hagedorn-Rasmussen, an approach that bridge the relationship between the seemingly uneasy pairs of strategy and sensemaking. Care implies a very broad range of meanings including assiduousness, thoughtfulness, sensitivity, consideration but also anxiety, trouble and concern. It might be argued that this lack of conceptual accu- racy makes it an odd concept in (micro)sociological studies. On the other hand, the connotations we attribute to the concept of care may be highly accurate and descriptive for the processes of innovation as well as entre- preneurship, where the balance between strategy/strategizing and sense- making is important. Connie Svabo explores tensions between innovation and durability in an innovation project in the fashion industry. She argues that an innovation, paradoxically, is an artifact, which is continuously engineered and main- tained in a stable form. She presents a case study (or story) of an innova- tive project, “Sidecar” in a small-scale fashion industry, which was both a success and a failure. In line with the approach presented by Scheuer, Svabo focuses on actor-network theory and translation. The chapter tells a story of the struggles of translating innovative ideas into material forms, and Innovation with care 19
- 41. shows that the work of innovation consists of continuous attempts to create material order. Hanne Westh Nicolajsen examines tension between a new networked communication technology, called ProjectWeb, and three organizational settings in which it is implemented. Her study demonstrates the critical role of the individual entrepreneurs (or “intrapreneur”) as an integrating force of technology, innovation and organizational change. According to her study, entrepreneurs are not only needed in the initial phase of idea gener- ation, but also in the phase of implementation. Hanne Westh Nicolajsen argues that it is extremely important to make sure that at least one central person have the right qualifications and interests in order to benefit from technological changes and innovations in an organization. Finally, Poul Bitsch Olsen, inspired by the approach of Karl Weick, analyses a tension in innovation projects between old and new experiences. His example comes from sports: the continuous innovation that goes between a handball league coach and his team. Olsen shows how the experi- ence of interruptions and change processes must be continuously made intelligible and selected at the micro level. He argues that “mindfulness” or “mindful innovation” is a concept that can be used to understand how cre- ative action and new experiences are carefully selected and used in this way. Mindfulness in innovation means that experience is noticed and made intel- ligible, and new knowledge is the outcome of this. REFERENCES Amabile, T.M. (1996), Creativity in Context: Update to The Social Psychology of Creativity, Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Amabile, T.M., R. Conti, H. Coon, J. Lazenby and M. Herron (1996), “Assessing the work environment for creativity,” Academy of Management Journal, 39 (5), 1154–84. Chesbrough, H.W. (2003), Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology, Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996), Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, New York: HarperCollins. Daft, R.L. and K.E. Weick (1984), “Toward a model of organizations as interpre- tation systems,” Academy of Management Review, 9 (2), 284–95. Ellison, N., Ch. Steinfield and C. Lampe (2006), “Spatially bounded online social networks and social capital: the role of facebook”, paper read at The Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA), 19-23 June, at Dresden, Germany. Fuglsang, L. and J. Sundbo (2005), “The organizational innovation system: three modes,” Journal of Change Management, 5 (3), 329–44. March, J.G. (1991), “Exploration and exploitation in organizational learning,” Organization Science, 2 (1), 71–87. 20 Introduction
- 42. Mulgan, G. and D. Albury (2003), Innovation in the Public Sector, London: Strategy Unit, Cabinet Office. Nelson, R.R. and S.G. Winter (1977), “In search of useful theory of innovation,” Research Policy, 6 (1), 36–76. Nowotny, H., P. Scott and M. Gibbons (2001), Re-thinking Science: Knowledge and the Public in an Age of Uncertainty, Cambridge: Polity Press. Parker, S. and J. Heapy (2006), The Journey to the Interface, London: Demos. Phillips, A. (1971), Technology and Market Structure: A Study of the Aircraft Industry, Lexington, MA: Lexington Books. Popper, K.R. Sir (1962), The Open Society and its Enemies, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Rogers, E. (1995), Diffusion of Innovations, New York: Free Press. Schumpeter, J.A. (1934, 1969), The Theory of Economic Development, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Schumpeter, J.A. (1947), Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, London: Allen & Unwin. Sundbo, J. (1998), The Organisation of Innovation in Services, Frederiksberg: Roskilde University Press. Sundbo, J. and L. Fuglsang (eds) (2002), Innovation as Strategic Reflexivity, London: Routledge. Surowiecki, J. (2004), The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many are Smarter than the Few and how Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economics, Societies, and Nations, London: Little Brown. Weick, K.E. (1995), Sensemaking in Organizations, Foundations for Organizational Science, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Young Foundation (2006), Social Silicon Valleys: A Manifesto for Social Innovation, What it is, Why it Matters and How it can be Accelerated, London: Young Foundation. Innovation with care 21
- 46. 2. Innovation and involvement in services Jon Sundbo INTRODUCTION This chapter will discuss innovation in services and employees’ and man- agers’involvement in the innovation process, which means that the top man- agement takes care of employees and managers. Service is a production which requires the involvement of employees and managers in the innova- tion process because it is what could be called a “broad” organizational process. By this I mean that it is a process that involves the total organization and not only a small group of researchers. Involvement in service innova- tions is not an advantage, it is a must. Care, which means awareness of the employees’ wellbeing and behavior and attempts to improve these, is, there- fore, a prerequisite for service production. “Service” is a broad category (see Illeris, 1996, for a definition) which is generally defined as the solving of problems that cannot be solved by the customer himself by use of a tool, a commodity. Services includes physical services such as cleaning, transport, operating hotels, knowledge services (for example education, consultancy, banks, real estate agency and per- sonal services), health care services (for example hospitals), social services (for example social security and advice), psychotherapy and hairdressing to name but a few. In the chapter I will, on the basis of earlier empirical studies, discuss theo- retically how the innovation process in services can be conceived. First I will discuss the nature of innovation in services and present an overview of the literature on innovation in services. Then a model of the innovation process is introduced and it is discussed how care is a part of the process. Finally, I will provide three empirical examples to give a deeper understanding of how innovation with care is carried out. 25
- 47. INNOVATION IN SERVICES What are innovations in services? I will start by discussing the nature of service innovation. There is a general overview of the literature on innova- tion in services which summarizes the research results and the general inter- pretation of what innovation in services is (Miles, 2004; Aa and Elfring, 2002; Gallouj, 2002; Sundbo, 1997, 1998; Boden and Miles, 2000; Coombs, 1999). The character of service innovations is discussed in this literature. A core element in the discussion has been whether innovation in services is different from that in manufacturing. The basis for this discussion are the many case studies that have been carried out about services firms (for example Miozzo and Soete, 2001; Sundbo, 1996, 1998; Boden and Miles, 2000; Howells, 2004; Vermeulen, 2001; Metcalfe and Miles, 2000; Andersen et al., 2000; Sundbo et al., 2001; Fuglsang, 2002; Gallouj, 2002; Brentani, 1993; Finch et al., 1994). These case studies have been carried out in a variety of service industries (for example consultancy (van Poucke, 2004; Sundbo, 1998), engineering consultancy (Mattsson, 1994; Larsen, 2001; SIC, 1999), computer services (Jönsson, 1995), cleaning and other opera- tional services (Djellal, 2002; Sundbo, 1999a) and tourism (Hjalager, 2002; Mattsson et al., 2005; Sundbo et al., 2007)). Surveys also play an important role. The well-known CIS-surveys (Community Innovation Survey) carried out by Eurostat (Innovation in Europe, 2004; Evangelista and Sirelli, 1998; den Hertog et al., 2006; Drejer, 2004) have, since the early 1990s, included services. Other European surveys have also been carried out (INNO- Studies, 2004; Hipp and Grupp, 2005; Djellal and Gallouj, 2001; in Denmark SIC, 1999; Erhvervsministeriet, 2000). It has been demonstrated that innovations in services are more complex and integrated. Namely, they are often product, process, organizational and market innovation in one and they are often small improvements (Voss et al., 1992; Boden and Miles, 2000). Innovations in services are rarely radical or large-scale (see Sundbo, 1998; Gallouj, 2002), but are mostly small improvements of products and procedures. Services are the delivery of a complex process in which the service is marketed contemporaneously with its production. Service innovations may be of different kinds. They may be product innovations (a new service product), process innovations (new procedures for produc- ing the service), delivery innovations (new ways of delivering the service including peripheral service (see Normann, 1991)) and quality assurance (see Edvardsson et al., 2000); market innovations (new behavior on the market or new strategic alliances), or organizational innovations (new organizational forms, for example new structures or a new organizational culture. 26 Involvement
- 48. A service is fundamentally a behavioral act, and innovation in services a renewal of human behavior. This behavior often implies the use of tech- nology, but the act is essential, which is why care is so important. This is also the reason why it is a service and not a need that can be satisfied by the customer buying a commodity. The service must be produced and deliv- ered by a person at the moment of consumption. There are innovations in service technology; for example knowledge services (such as accountancy, consultancy, education) use IT and many services (for example insurance, banking) cannot be carried out without the use of IT to administer the service. All in all, innovations in services are both behavioral and tech- nological, however, they are more behavioral than in manufacturing. Empirical investigations have shown that 16 percent of the innovations are technological and 30 percent depending on technology, and 54 percent of innovations are non-technological (Sundbo, 1998). Service innovations have increasingly become technological, particularly in knowledge services where the service can be delivered as a self service via IT-networks (the Internet, mobile telephones and so on). Thus, when we talk about service innovations, we may be talking of both technological and behavioral inno- vations and often a mixture of both. Service innovations are often integrated, which means that they are product, process, organizational, delivery and market renewals at the same time. Even though they are integrated, they are often only small steps in renewing the services. Examples of typical service innovations could be a new insurance policy with different conditions and premiums; a cleaning contract not defined by the procedures but by the result (whether the cus- tomer is satisfied that things are clean), a new way of measuring employee satisfaction presented by a management consultancy, a hotel introducing free fruit in the reception. One may even discuss whether such small changes are innovations (see Sundbo and Gallouj, 2000). However, they develop the service firms and create economic growth. An attempt to create a distinction between innovation and the daily changes that everything goes through has been to argue that for something to be an innovation the change must be reproduced (Sundbo, 1997; Gallouj, 2002). The new service for a customer must be repeated for other customers, the new procedure or organization for producing and delivering the service must be widespread in the firm and so on. Service innovations have also, in one tradition, been conceptualized as service development and seen as new solutions developed on the basis of the observation of service quality problems (Edvardsson et al., 2000). Service innovation is described as service design and the tradition is ori- ented towards practical solutions (for example Gummesson, 1991). Thus, service innovations in this tradition are seen as a result of a kind of service Innovation and involvement in services 27
- 49. engineering where new services are constructed, often with the aim of improving the service quality. THE ORGANIZATION OF INNOVATION Innovations in services are mostly behavioral. Thus, they are different from the mainstream product innovations in manufacturing, which are techno- logical. However, there are similarities. Some service innovations are tech- nological and some innovations in manufacturing are behavioral. But what about the innovation process – the way in which the work with innovation is organized? Is that different from what we know from the mainstream lit- erature, which is based on manufacturing? The nature of the innovation process in services will be discussed in this section. Innovations in services are not laboratory or science based (Sundbo, 1997; Gallouj, 2002) as they typically are in manufacturing. Often inno- vations are ad hoc, based on ideas from employees or managers. They may be part of a more systematic process, however the innovations are not top-down dictates, but must be developed along the way when ideas occur. Even when the organization attempts to have a very systematic innovation process, the concrete innovations must be developed by employees in the organization. This situation in particular requires that many employees and managers are not only involved in the innovation process, but also that they feel involved. Innovation in services is extremely dependent on the employ- ees’ and managers’ commitment to innovation and care. This also applies to the top manager, who should be open to the active involvement of the employees. Customers also play a central role in service firms’ innovation processes. The philosophy of service production is – according to the service man- agement and marketing theory (van Looy et al., 1998; Grönroos, 2000) – based on the customer as a co-producer. All this means that innovation in services is a process which greatly involves different actors. It is not left to experts as is often the case in manufacturing where scientists make most of the effort. Innovation has been described as a dual process that is both top-down and bottom-up (Sundbo, 1996). The employees and middle managers get ideas about new service products or new ways of producing and delivering the services and fight for realizing their ideas. Such processes appear natur- ally in all organizations. Often they die because the top management do not react to the ideas or even reject them and signal negative sanctions towards employees who use their time to get ideas and argue for them. This is not an optimal situation for the top management since innovations do not 28 Involvement
- 50. Exploring the Variety of Random Documents with Different Content
- 51. carbonized conifers and cycads, with a few ferns and lycopodiaceæ, or club- mosses. [48] See Sir J. F. W. Herschel's Discourse on Nat. Phil. The brown-coal of Hohen-Warte by the Osterweld, is chiefly formed of the Abies Linkii, and Pterophyllum Lyellianum, whose leaves and twigs, closely impacted together, are generally of a brownish colour, have a glossy surface, and, when soaked in water, are perfectly flexible. The other modification of Wealden coal appears to have undergone a greater degree of pressure, and of exclusion from the atmosphere; no ligneous structure is apparent, but indistinct impressions of leaves are perceptible, and these are chiefly of ferns and club- mosses. This coal has probably resulted from an accumulation of plants of less firm texture, and more perishable, than those of which the former is composed. [49] [49] See Dr. Bunker's Mon. Norddeutsch. Weald. Many interesting facts relating to the carbonization of vegetables, came under my observation during my researches in the Wealden strata; and it is a subject of regret to me, that circumstances prevented my following up the investigation of those still imperfectly explored deposits. Small nodular portions of coal, in which no structure is apparent, often occur in the calciferous grit of Tilgate Forest; and sometimes large masses of lignite, fissured in every direction, and having the interstices filled with white calcareous spar.[50] Some of the sandstones are discoloured by the abundance of minute particles of lignite, produced by the disintegration of ferns peculiar to the country of the Iguanodon. [50] A fine specimen of this kind is in the British Museum. The original structure and composition of a plant doubtless affected its carbonization; for in the same layer of stone, the stems of Endogenites, hereafter described, invariably possess a thick, outer crust, of coal; while those of Clathrariæ, plants allied to the Cycads, have not a particle of carbonaceous matter, but are surrounded by a reddish brown earthy substance. The nature of the stratum in which the plants were imbedded, must also have influenced the process of bituminization. Masses of vegetables buried beneath beds of tenacious clay, by which the escape of the gaseous elements set free by decomposition was prevented, must have been placed under the most favourable conditions for their conversion into lignite and coal. That the production of lignite is still going on there can be no doubt; and the following instance of a bed of recent origin, affords an instructive illustration of
- 52. COA the subject . Near Limerick, in the district of Maine, one of the States of North America, there are peat-bogs of considerable extent, in which a substance similar to cannel-coal is found at the depth of three or four feet from the surface, amidst the remains of rotten logs of wood, and beaver-sticks:[51] the peat is twenty feet thick, and rests upon white sand. This coal was discovered on digging a ditch to drain a portion of the bog, for the purpose of obtaining peat for manure. The substance is a true bituminous coal, containing more bitumen than is found in any other variety,[52] Polished sections of the compact masses exhibit the peculiar structure of coniferous trees, and prove that the coal was derived from a species allied to the American fir. [51] Pieces of wood fashioned by the beavers for the construction of their dams. [52] An analysis of 100 grains gave the following results:—Bitumen 72; carbon, 21; oxide of iron, 4; silica, 1; oxide of manganese, 2; = 100. Coal.—We proceed to the examination of that remarkable substance which has resulted from the perfect bituminization of the vegetables of the most ancient Flora which geological researches have brought to light, and to which the term Coal is commonly restricted. Although Balthazar Klein in the sixteenth century affirmed that coal owed its formation to wood and other vegetable substances,[53] yet I can well remember when many eminent geologists were sceptical on this point; and the truth in this, as in most other questions of natural philosophy, was established with difficulty. The experiments and observations of the late Dr. Macculloch, mainly contributed to solve the problem as to the vegetable nature of this substance; and that eminent chemist and geologist successfully traced the transition of vegetable matter from peat-wood, brown-coal, lignite, and jet, to coal, anthracite, graphite, and plumbago. Nor must the meritorious labours of that accomplished naturalist, and excellent man, the late Mr. Parkinson, author of the "Organic Remains of a Former World," in this field of research, be forgotten.[54] The first volume of that work, which treats on fossil plants, contains much original information on the transmutation of vegetables into the various mineral substances in which the nature and original structure of the originals are altogether changed and obliterated; it may still be consulted by the student with advantage. [53] Sternberg's "Flore du Monde Primitif." [54] See my "Pictorial Atlas of Organic Remains," 1850.
- 53. Although the vegetable origin of all coal will not admit of question, yet evidence of the internal organization of the plants of which it is composed, is not always attainable; for the most perfect coal has undergone a complete liquefaction, and if any portions of the structure remain, they appear under the microscope as if imbedded in a pure bituminous mass. The slaty coal generally preserves traces of cellular or vascular tissue, and the spiral vessels, and the dotted cells of coniferous trees, may readily be detected in chips or slices, prepared in the manner previously pointed out (ante, p. 66.). In many examples the cells are filled with an amber-coloured resinous substance; in others the organization is so well preserved, that on the exposed surface of a piece of coal cracked by exposure to heat, the vascular tissue, spiral vessels, and cells studded with glands, may be detected. Even in the white ashes left after combustion, traces of the spiral vessels are often discernible under a highly magnifying powder. Some beds of coal are wholly composed of minute leaves and disintegrated foliage; and if a mass recently extracted from the mine be split asunder, the surface is seen to be covered with flexible pellicles of carbonized leaves and fibres, matted together; and flake after flake may be peeled off through a thickness of many inches, and the same structure be apparent. Rarely are any large trunks or branches observable in the coal; the appearance of many beds being that of a deposit of foliage, shed and accumulated in a forest, (as may be observable in existing pine-districts,) and consolidated by pressure, while undergoing that peculiar change by which vegetable matter is converted into a carbonaceous mass. In fine, a gradual transition may be traced from the peat-wood and submerged forests of modern times, in which leaves, fruits, and trunks of indigenous trees and plants are preserved, to those vast deposits of mineral coal, formed by the bituminization of the extinct Floras which flourished in the palæozoic ages. The geological position of the ancient coal, the manner in which it is interstratified with layers of clay, shale, micaceous sandstone, grit, and ironstone—in some districts associated with beds of fresh-water shells (Sil. Syst. p. 84)—in others alternating with strata containing marine remains,—are fully treated of in Wond. pp. 729-733, and Bd. p. 525; and it is not within the scope of the present work to dwell in detail upon what may be termed the physical geology of the carboniferous deposits. But a few observations on the phenomena presented by these accumulations of bituminized vegetables and their associated strata, are necessary to render the subsequent remarks on the habits and affinities of the plants composing the palæozoic Flora intelligible to the general reader.
- 54. While the essential conditions for the conversion of vegetable substances into coal appear to be the imbedding of large quantities of recent trees and plants in a deposit which shall exclude the air, and prevent the escape of the gaseous elements when released by decomposition from their organic combination, so, according to the more or less perfect manner in which these conditions are fulfilled, will result coal, jet, lignite, brown-coal, or peat-wood; or a mass of partially carbonized vegetables, like that observable when new-mown hay undergoes spontaneous combustion, from bituminous fermentation in the atmosphere (Wond. p. 701. Org. Rem. I. p. 181). The manner in which the carboniferous strata have been deposited, has been a subject of much discussion. Some contend that the coal-measures were originally in the state of peat-bogs, and that the successive layers were formed by the subsidences of forests which grew on the sites now occupied by their carbonized remains; others suppose that the vegetable matter originated from rafts, like those of the Mississippi, which floated out to sea, and became engulfed; while many affirm that the coal-measures were accumulated in inland seas or lakes, the successive beds of vegetable matter being supplied by periodical land-floods; and the supporters of each hypothesis bring numerous facts in corroboration of their respective opinions. There can, I think, be no doubt that the production of coal has taken place under each of these conditions, and that at different periods, and in various localities, all these causes have been in operation; in some instances singly, in others in combination. Coal may have been formed at the bottom of fresh-water lakes, as in those instances where it is associated with fresh-water shells and crustaceans, as at Burdie House (Wond. p. 693), and in some of the Derbyshire and Yorkshire deposits; in the beds of rivers and estuaries, as in the Wealden, and in the Shrewsbury coal-field;[55] and from drifted forests, like the rafts of the American rivers, transported into the sea, and engulfed in the abyss of the ocean;[56] and the remains of terrestrial, lacustrine, and marine animals, may accordingly be found associated with it.[57] But though many coal-fields (or basins, as they are termed, because they occupy depressions) have evidently been produced by different, and local agencies, the sedimentary deposits and coal-beds comprised in the carboniferous formations, setting aside unimportant variations, present a remarkable uniformity of character in their nature and arrangement, not only throughout Great Britain and Europe, but in every other part of the known world. [55] In this coal-field are beds of limestone several feet thick, abounding in cyprides, fresh-water mollusks, &c.—Sil. Syst. p, 84. [56] The immense thicknesss of some coal-beds, without any intercalations of earthy materials, seems to be inexplicable on any other
- 55. STRATIFICATION OF A COAL-FIEL supposition but that of accumulations of drift-wood and plants. In the Great Exhibition of 1851, there was exhibited, on the outside of the west end of the Crystal Palace, a section of the lowest bed of coal from Tividale Colliery in South Staffordshire, the total thickness of which was 29 feet, with no intermixture whatever of sediment, except some thin shaly partings: the entire mass was composed of carbonized vegetables. [57] Sir R. I. Murchison has treated this subject with great ability: see Sil. Syst. chap, xi., and the illustrative maps opposite, p. 152. Stratification of a Coal-field.—The group of strata constituting a coal-field consists of an alternation of layers of coal and of clay, of variable thickness, resting, very generally, on grit, or marine limestone abounding in shells, corals, and crinoidea. My late excellent friend, Mr. Bakewell, used to exemplify the manner in which the beds of coal are interstratified with layers of clay and shale, by the following apt illustration; let a series of mussel-shells be placed one within the other, and a layer of clay be interposed between each; the shells will represent the beds of coal, and the partitions of clay the earthy strata intercalated between the carboniferous layers; now, if one side of the series of shells be raised to indicate the general rise of the strata in that direction, and the whole be dislocated by partial cracks and fissures, the general arrangement and subsequent displacement of the beds will be represented. The principal feature which arrests attention on the examination of the section of a coal-pit, is the uniform presence of a thick bed of clay beneath every layer of coal; but a still more extraordinary fact remains to be mentioned, namely, that a common plant of the coal strata, called Stigmaria, (hereafter described, see Lign. 36, 38,) invariably occurs, more or less abundantly, in this bed of under-day, although very rarely to be met with in the coal or shale above. This phenomenon, long since noticed by Martin, Macculloch, and other authors, but whose value was not duly estimated till the recent observations of Mr. Logan, (Geol. Proc. vol. iii. p. 275,) is also found to prevail throughout the Welsh coal formation, which is upwards of twelve thousand feet in thickness, and contains more than sixty beds of coal, and as many of clay with stigmariæ; the Appalachian coal-measures of the United States present the same characters.[58] To place this fact before the student in a clear point of view, I will describe one of the triple series of beds which compose a coal-field. [58] See Prof. Rogers, in the Proceedings of the American Geologists, p. 453; and Sir C. Lyell's Travels in America. 1. Under-clay; the lowermost stratum. A tough argillaceous substance, which upon drying becomes a grey friable earth: it is occasionally black, from the
- 56. ORIGIN AND NATURE OF COA presence of carbonaceous matter. It contains innumerable stems of stigmariæ, which are generally of considerable length, and have their rootlets or fibres (see Lign. 38) attached, and extending in every direction through the clay: these stems commonly lie parallel with the planes of the bed, and nearer to the top than to the bottom. 2. Coal. A carbonized mass, in which the external forms of the plants and trees composing it are obliterated, but the internal structure remains; large trunks or stems, and leaves, are rarely distinguishable in it, but the presence of coniferous wood in many beds of coal, proves that this arises, not from the absence of trees, but from their external forms having been obliterated. 3. The Roof, or upper bed. This generally consists of slaty clay, abounding in leaves, trunks, stems, branches, and fruits, and contains layers and nodules of ironstone, inclosing leaves, insects, crustaceans, &c. In some localities beds of fresh-water mussels, and in others of marine shells, are intercalated; layers of shale, finely laminated clay, micaceous sand and grit, and pebbles of limestone, granite, sandstone, and other rocks, are often present. The most illustrative examples of the foliage of the carboniferous flora are found in this deposit, which appears to be an accumulation of drifted materials derived from other rocks, and promiscuously intermingled with the dense foliage and stems of a prostrate forest; the whole having been transported from a distance by a powerful current or flood. Thus we have, in the first place, spread uniformly over the bottom, and constituting the bed on which the coal reposes, a stratum of clay (Under-clay), composed of fine pulverulent materials, which may have once constituted the soil of a vast plain or savannah; the only remains found in it are the roots of gigantic trees (see Lign. 36); for such the stigmariæ are now proved to have been, and not aquatic plants, as was formerly supposed (Bd. p. 476). Secondly, a bituminous mass (Coal), composed of coniferous wood, gigantic ferns, club-mosses, &c.; occasionally with trunks of trees penetrating vertically through it. Thirdly, a deposit of drift or water-worn materials (the Roof), mixed with the foliage and stems of numerous species of terrestrial plants; the whole appearing to have been subjected to the action of currents. The first, or Under-clay, may have been the natural soil, in which the stigmariæ grew; the next,—the Coal,— the carbonized stems, and other remains of the trees to which the roots belonged: and the last, or uppermost, forming the roof of the coal, may have
- 57. resulted from the foliage and branches of a prostrate forest, overwhelmed and buried beneath the transported detritus of distant rocks. These phenomena may be explained by supposing the inundation of a thickly-wooded plain from an irruption of the sea; or of a vast inland lake, occasioned by the sudden removal of some barrier; or by a subsidence of the tract of country on which the forest grew. But when we find an accumulation of strata, in which triple deposits of this kind are repeated some thirty or forty times through a thickness of many thousand feet, this solution of the problem is not satisfactory. Not only subsidence after subsidence must have taken place, but the first submergence have been followed by an elevation of the land— another soil, fit for the growth of forest trees, must have been produced— another generation of vegetables, of precisely the same species and genera, have sprung up, and arrived at maturity—and then another subsidence, and another accumulation of drift. And these periodical oscillations in the relative level of the land and water must have gone on uninterruptedly through a long period of time, not in one district or country only, but in various parts of the world, during the same geological epoch. At present I do not think we have data sufficient to explain these phenomena; what has been advanced may, perhaps, serve to elicit further information, by pointing out the difficulties in which the question is involved, and showing what interesting fields of discovery are still unexplored, and how comprehensive and important are the objects that come within the scope of geological investigation.[59] [59] I would refer the student for a fuller consideration of the phenomena thus briefly noticed, to the 6th edition of my Wonders of Geology, pp. 669, 718, 731. I will conclude this chapter with the following beautiful reflections of Dr. Buckland on the origin and nature of Coal, and the changes it undergoes when rendered subservient to the necessities and luxuries of man. "Few persons are aware of the remote and wonderful events in the economy of our planet, and of the complicated applications of human industry and science, which are involved in the production of the coal that supplies with fuel the metropolis of England. "The most early stage to which we can carry back its origin, was among the swamps and forests of the primeval earth, where it flourished in the form of gigantic Calamites, and stately Lepidodendra, and Sigillariæ. From their native bed, these plants were transported into some adjacent lake, or estuary, or sea. Here they floated on the waters, until they sank saturated to the bottom, and
- 58. being buried in the detritus of adjacent lands, became transferred to a new estate among the members of the mineral kingdom. A long interment followed, during which a course of chemical changes, and new combinations of their vegetable elements, converted them to the mineral condition of coal. By the elevating force of subterranean agency, these beds of coal have been uplifted from beneath the waters, to a new position in the hills and mountains, where they are accessible to the industry of man. From this fourth stage, coal has been removed by the labours of the miner, assisted by the arts and sciences, that have co-operated to produce the steam-engine, and the safety-lamp. Returned once more to the light of day, and a second time committed to the waters, it has, by the aid of navigation, been conveyed to the scene of its next and most considerable change by fire; a change during which it becomes subservient to the most important wants and conveniences of man. In this seventh stage of its long eventful history, it seems, to the vulgar eye, to undergo annihilation; its elements are, indeed, released from the mineral combinations which they have maintained for ages, but their apparent destruction is only the commencement of new successions of change and of activity. Set free from their long imprisonment, they return to their native atmosphere, from which they were absorbed by the primeval vegetation of the earth. To-morrow they may contribute to the substance of timber, in the trees of our existing forests; and having for a while resumed their place in the living vegetable kingdom, may, ere long, be applied a second time to the use and benefit of man. And when decay or fire shall once more consign them to the earth, or to the atmosphere, the same elements will enter on some further department of their perpetual ministration in the economy of the material world."[60] [60] Bd p. 481.
- 59. FOSSIL CRYPTOGAMI CHAPTER VI. FOSSIL VEGETABLES. In the present section of this work, I propose to explain the botanical arrangement and nomenclature of fossil plants; and figure and describe one or more species of the genera that are most likely to come under the observation of the student, either in public or private collections, or in the course of his researches in the field. To determine the botanical relations of fossil leaves and stems, reference must be had to works expressly devoted to the subject; namely, the "British Fossil Flora," by Dr. Lindley and Mr. Hutton, and the "Histoire des Végétaux Fossiles," by M. Adolphe Brongniart. The classification of the last-named eminent botanist is here adopted, as the most easy of application. With regard to the nomenclature, it may be necessary to remark, that when a fossil plant undoubtedly belongs to a recent genus, the usual botanical name is employed: for example, Equisetum Lyellii; when the fossil does not possess all the generic characters, yet is evidently allied to a recent genus, the term ites (from λιθος, lithos, stone), is added—as Equisetites, Palmacites, &c.; and this termination is invariably adopted by some authors. When the fossil plant differs altogether from any known type, it is distinguished by some arbitrary generic name, as Bucklandia, Sigillaria, &c. There are also a few provisional genera for the reception of fossil leaves, fruits, and stems, whose characters and relations are but imperfectly known; as Carpolithes, Endogenites, &c. Upon these principles the present arrangement has been founded: the progress of discovery will, of course, be continually adding to the list, and the classification require to be modified. The following account of the principal types of the ancient floras whose relics are preserved in the mineral kingdom, though commencing with those of the most simple structure, the Cryptogamia, and advancing to the higher orders, is not strictly botanical; for it was found convenient, in some instances, to notice certain species and genera of different orders under the same head, from their occurrence in the same geological formations.
- 60. FOSSIL DIATOMACE It is estimated that not more than two thousand species of plants have been discovered in a fossil state, while the known recent species amount to upwards of eighty thousand. Cellular Cryptogamia; Algæ.—The plants designated by botanists Algæ, and commonly known as sea-weeds, lavers, and fresh-water mosses, are of the most simple structure—mere aggregations of cells—but present innumerable varieties of form and magnitude: many species are mere vesicles of such minuteness as to be invisible to the unassisted eye, except accumulated in countless myriads, when they appear as a green, purple, or reddish, slime in the water; or as a film on wood or stone, or on the ground, in damp situations; while others are tough branched marine plants, many fathoms in length. The Algæ form three principal groups: 1. the jointless, as the Fuci, the Dulses, Tangles, and Lavers: 2. the jointed, which are composed of thread-like articulated tubes; such are the fresh-water Confervæ: 3. the disjointed, or Brittle-worts, so called from their spontaneous self-division, which is in some kinds complete, in others only partial; and these, by separating transversely, and leaving each cell or frustule attached at the angles, produce those beautiful chains of angular green transparent cases, so constantly seen under the microscope when substances from fresh-water streams or lakes are submitted to examination. As many of these forms are endowed with spontaneous motion, and possess other properties common to animal organization, it is not surprising that their vegetable nature was doubted, and that even so profound a naturalist as M. Ehrenberg placed them in the animal kingdom: the greater number being comprised in his family of Bacillariæ, were described in the former edition of this work, as Infusoria or Animalcules; in conformity with the classification of the illustrious microscopist, whose splendid works and indefatigable labours have so greatly promoted the advancement of microscopical investigation.[61] [61] The whole of the objects called Infusoria in the first edition of "The Medals of Creation" belong to various kinds of Diatomaceæ. These minute vegetable organisms are placed by botanists in two tribes, the Diatomaceæ or the Brittle-worts, and the Desmidieæ. The latter are exclusively inhabitants of fresh-water, while a large proportion of the former are marine plants. Some naturalists (M. Brébisson) restrict the name Diatomaceæ to those species which secrete siliceous envelopes; and that of Desmidieæ to those whose structures are not siliceous, and are reducible by heat to carbon. As the durable parts of these plants alone concern the
- 61. geologist, the name Diatomaceæ will be employed as a general term in reference to their fossil remains. These tribes of Algæ abound in every lake and stream of fresh-water, in every pool or bay, and throughout the ocean from the equator to the poles. Certain kinds of sea-weeds secrete carbonate of lime; but the Diatomaceæ have the power of separating silex, or the earth of flint, from the water, by some unknown process, and their tissues are composed of pure quartz: hence, under the microscope, their remains, consisting wholly of rock crystal, exhibit the most exquisite forms, elaborately fretted and ornamented (see Lign. 4). After the death and decomposition of these plants, their durable frustules or cases appear as colourless discs, cups, spheres, shields, &c., and these accumulate at the bottom of the water in such inconceivable numbers, as to form strata of great thickness and extent. Slowly, imperceptibly, and incessantly, are the vital energies of these atoms separating from the element in which they live the most refractory and enduring of mineral substances, silex, and elaborating it into imperishable structures, and thus adding enormous contributions to the accumulations of detritus, which make up the sedimentary rocks of the crust of the globe. The extent of this infinitesimal flora throughout regions where no other forms of vegetation are known, is strikingly demonstrated by the observations of our eminent botanical traveller. Dr. Joseph Hooker, in his account of the Antarctic regions.[62] [62] "On the Botany of the South Polar Regions;" in Sir J. Ross's Voyage of Discovery. "Everywhere," Dr. Hooker states, "the waters and the ice alike abound in these microscopic vegetables. Though too small to be visible to the unassisted eye, their aggregated masses stained the iceberg and pack-ice wherever the latter were washed by the sea, and imparted a pale ochreous colour to the ice. From the south of the belt of ice which encircles the globe, to the highest latitudes reached by man, this vegetation is everywhere conspicuous, from the contrast between its colour and that of the white snow and ice in which it is imbedded. "In the 80° of south latitude all the surface ice carried along by currents, and the sides of every berg, and the base of the great Victoria barrier itself—a perpendicular wall of ice, from one to two hundred feet above the sea level— were tinged brown from this cause, as if the waters were charged with oxide of iron. The majority of these plants consist of simple vegetable cells enclosed in
- 62. RECENT DIATOMACE indestructible silex; and it is obvious that the death of such multitudes must form sedimentary deposits of immense extent. "The universal existence of such an invisible vegetation as that of the Antarctic Ocean is a truly wonderful fact, and the more so from its being unaccompanied by plants of a high order. This ocean swarms with mollusca, and entomostracous crustaceans, small whales, and porpoises; and the sea with penguins and seals, and the air with birds; the animal kingdom is everywhere present, the larger creatures preying on the smaller, and these again on those more minute; all living nature seems to be carnivorous. This microscopic vegetation is the sole nutrition of the herbivorous animals; and it may likewise serve to purify the atmosphere, and thus execute in the Antarctic latitudes the office of the trees and grasses of the temperate regions, and the broad foliage of the palms of the tropics." Dr. Hooker also remarks that the siliceous envelopes of the same kinds of diatomaceæ now living in the waters of the South Polar Ocean, have contributed in past ages to the formation of European strata; for the tripoli and the phonolite stones of the Rhine, contain the siliceous envelopes of identical species. Such are the comments of one of our most distinguished botanists, on the phenomena under review. The reader will perhaps ask, what then are the essential characters which separate the animal from the vegetable kingdom? To this question it is impossible to give a satisfactory reply: perhaps the only distinction that will be generally admitted by zoologists and botanists is the following:—animals require organic substances for their support; vegetables derive their sustenance from inorganic matter. Recent Diatomaceæ. Plate IV.—To familiarize the reader with the nature of these vegetable organisms, a few recent species are represented in Plate IV., coloured as they appear when alive, under the microscope; the figures are magnified as expressed by the fractions. Xanthidium. Plate IV. figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.—The case or frustule of this genus consists of a hollow, siliceous globe, beset with spines. The increase of the Xanthidia by self-division, produces the double appearance in the figures, all of which are in the progress of separation.[63] [63] The organisms so abundant in the flint and chalk, and which were referred by M. Ehrenberg to this genus, and consequently described under the name of Xanthidia by myself and others, are certainly in nowise related to the recent forms: they are flexible envelopes, and probably belong to zoophytes; as will be shown in the sequel.
- 63. Pyxidiculum. Plate IV. fig. 2.—The case is a little saucer-shaped box, and is invested by a membrane. Bacillaria. Plate IV. fig. 6.—A simple siliceous frustule, of a prismatic shape, forming a brilliant chain, which often appears in zigzag, in consequence of incomplete self-division. An immense number and variety of forms are placed in this family by Ehrenberg, with a multitude of generic and specific names. The fresh-water species inhabit every pond and lake, and the marine every sea. Fossil species are equally abundant. Cocconeis. Plate IV. fig. 7.—This is a very elegant type; the frustule consists of a simple siliceous case, with a central opening; it never occurs in chains like the former. It has been found fossil near Cassel. Navicula. Plate IV. figs. 8, 9, 14, 15.—The plants of this genus are free, and float in the water apparently by the agency of cilia. Their case is a boat-like envelope with six openings, composed of pure silex, and in many species is exquisitely ornamented. Figs. 8 and 9. show a living Navicula, viewed in front, and in profile: in fig. 9 are represented the currents produced when the body is moving through the water; after Ehrenberg. Fossil Naviculæ abound in many tertiary strata. Galionella. Plate IV. figs. 10, 11.—These algæ are free, and the frustules of a cylindrical, globular, or discoidal form; they occur in chains, in consequence of the self-division being imperfect, and the new individuals remaining attached to the old. The Galionellæ are most abundant and prolific, and inhabit every pool, stream, and lake: fossil species occur in the Virginian marls, and other strata. Synhedra. Plate IV. fig. 12.—The frustules are siliceous, and of a slender, elongated form. The plant is attached by the base (fig. 12 a.) in youth, and afterwards becomes free. It is found fossil in the Mountain-meal of Santa Flora, and many other deposits. Podosphenia. Plate IV. fig. 13.—The frustule is cruciform, or wedge-shaped, and attached in youth by the small end, but afterwards becomes free. These plants are often arranged in clusters, as in the figure. M. Ehrenberg states that they inhabit the sea, and not fresh-water; but I have found them in streams communicating with the Thames. Podospheniæ abound in the polishing slate of Bilin. Eunotia. Plate IV. figs. 16, 17.—The frustule is siliceous, and either simple or bivalve; flat below, and convex, and often richly dentated above. An empty case is shown fig. 16; and a group of living Eunotice attached to a stem of conferva, fig. 17. Several fossil species have been discovered at Santa Flora.
- 64. That the general reader, whose attention is for the first time directed to this subject, may be prepared for the enormous deposits of fossil diatomaceæ that are found in some formations, I subjoin the observations of Dr. Bailey on an elegant fragile species, which hangs together in clusters, appearing like spiral chains, and is about 1 /20 of a line in diameter; it is named Meridion vernale. "This fresh-water plant is seen in immense quantities in the mountain brooks around West Point, the bottoms of which are literally covered in the first warm days of spring with a ferruginous-coloured mucous matter, about a quarter of an inch thick, that, on examination by the microscope, proves to be filled with millions and millions of these exquisitely beautiful siliceous organisms. Every submerged stone, twig, and spear of grass, is enveloped by them; and the waving plume-like appearance of a filamentous body covered in this manner, is often extremely elegant. Alcohol completely dissolves the endochrome (soft colouring matter) of this species, and the frustules are left as colourless as glass, and resist the action of fire."[64] [64] Trans. Amer. Assoc. Geolog. 1843, p. 152. The yellow or ochreous scum observable in ponds, ditches, and stagnant pools, is an aggregation of diatomaceæ, whose frustules are feriniginous, and of such extreme minuteness, that a billion of their cases would not be more than a cubic inch in bulk.[65] [65] Ehrenberg. Fossil Diatomaceæ.—From this notice of a few recent types, we proceed to the investigation of the fossil remains of this tribe of Algæ. In peat-bogs and swamps, both of modern and ancient date, masses of a white marly or siliceous paste (hydrate of silica), are often observed, and these are found upon microscopical observation to be wholly made up of the frustules of Naviculæ, Bacillariæ, Galionellæ, &c., with an intermixture of the needle-like spicules of fresh-water sponges. Many of the peat-bogs of Ireland contain layers of a white earthy substance, which, when dry, is of the appearance and consistence of friable chalk, and entirely consists of the siliceous cases of various kinds of diatomaceæ.
- 65. FOSSIL DIATOMACEÆ OF IRELAN Lign. 4. Siliceous Frustules of Diatomaceæ, and Spicules of Spongillæ; from a deposit on the banks of the river Bann, Ireland. (Seen by transmitted light, and highly magnified.) Fossil Diatomaceæ from Ireland, Lign. 4.—Dr. Drummond describes a bed of this kind near the base of the Mourne Mountains, in the County of Down, Ireland. It consists of a very light white substance, resembling in appearance carbonate of magnesia: it has a coarse and somewhat fibrous fracture, and is easily reduced to powder. It is almost entirely siliceous, and is composed of the cases of diatomaceæ of the usual fresh-water species, without any admixture of inorganic matter.[66] [66] Mag. Nat. Hist. New Series, vol. iii. p. 353, July 1839. On the banks of the river Bann, in the same county, there is an extensive stratum of a similar earth, and which, from being in much request for polishing plate, is locally known as Lord Roden's plate powder. This earth is wholly made up of the siliceous frustules of many kinds of this tribe of Algæ, and a few grains under the microscope yield a great variety of exquisite forms: figures of several are given in Lign. 4, from specimens of this earth, with which I was favoured by the Countess of Caledon. They comprise two or three species of Navicula, Galionella, Coscinodiscus, Gomphonema, Bacillaria, Stauroneis, &c., and spicules or spines of fresh-water sponges.[67] [67] The names of the usual kinds of Diatomaceous frustules may be learnt by reference to Mr. Andrew Pritchard's abstract (with coloured figures) of Ehrenberg's Infusoria. The splendid work of Mr. Ralfs, on the British Desmidieæ, 1 vol. 4to, with coloured plates, is the best guide for those who wish to study the recent plants. Beds of siliceous marl—that is, of argillaceous earth combined with a large amount of minute particles of silex, all of which prove to be organisms when examined by a high magnifying power,—have been found in numerous places
- 66. Lign. 5. Fossil. Galiomellæ; highly magnified. not only in England, but all over the world, since M. Ehrenberg first directed attention to their nature and origin. Near Bryansford (Newcastle), Binstwick in Holderness, and in the Fens of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, extensive fresh-water microphytal deposits have been discovered and examined. From our Antipodes I have received many examples of these vegetable earths. My eldest son, Mr. Walter Mantell, discovered an extensive bed of white marl on the banks of the great brackish-water lake of Waihora, in the middle island of New Zealand, consisting entirely of frustules of Bacillariæ. From New Plymouth he obtained some new and exquisite forms of Navicula, Stauroneis, &c.; ranges of low hillocks of sand, of considerable extent, being made up of microphytes (microscopic plants).[68] [68] See a Memoir on the Geology and Fossil Remains of New Zealand, from the researches of Walter Mantell, Esq.—Geol. Journal, vol. vi. pl. 29. Mr. Dean, of Clapham Common, informs me that a large quantity of white earth sent from New Zealand as native magnesia, he found to consist wholly of frustules of diatomaceæ, chiefly of Galionellæ. (See Lign. 5.) In America, recent beds of this kind of great extent have been observed and examined by that distinguished microscopist, Dr. Bailey, Professor of Chemistry in the Military Academy at West Point: and the pages of that excellent scientific periodical, Silliman's American Journal of Science, are enriched with figures and descriptions of the microphytes of which they are mainly composed. But the Tertiary formations contain strata of this nature, which far surpass in the abundance and variety of their organic contents, any of the modern deposits we have noticed. The Polierschiefer, or polishing-slate of Bilin, is stated, by M. Ehrenberg, to form a series of strata fourteen feet in thickness, entirely made up of the siliceous shells of Galionellæ, of such extreme minuteness, that a cubic inch of the stone contains forty-one thousand millions. The Berghmehl (mountain-meal, or fossil farina), of San Flora, in Tuscany, is one mass of these organisms. In Lapland a similar earth is met with, which, in times of scarcity, is mixed by the inhabitants with the ground bark of trees, for food; some of this earth was found to contain twenty different species of algæ.
- 67. FOSSIL DIATOMACEÆ OF VIRGINI Lign. 6 Organic Bodies in Porcelain Earth; highly magnified. In the district of Soos, near Egra, in Bohemia, a fine white infusorial earth occurs, about three feet beneath the surface; this substance, when dried, appears to the naked eve like pure magnesia, but under the microscope is seen to be mainly constituted of elegant disciform cases of a species of Campilodiscus, of which figures are given, Lign. 111, figs. 1, 2. Some beds of porcelain-earth M. Ehrenberg found to be in a great measure made up of concentric articulated rings, entire and in fragments (see Lign. 6), which he believes to be bacillariæ. Fossil Diatomaceæ of the Richmond-earth; Virginia.— The town of Richmond, in Virginia, is built on strata of siliceous marl of great extent, which earth; highly magnified. have a total thickness, beneath and around the town, of more than twenty feet. These marls, whose organic composition was first detected by Professor W. B. Rogers, are referred by that eminent American geologist, to the older tertiary (eocene, or miocene) formations. They occupy considerable districts, spreading out into sterile tracts along the flanks of the hills, their siliceous character rendering them unfavourable to vegetation. The investigations of Dr. Bailey have shown that the frustules so abundant in this earth, consist of several species of Navicula (Lign. 1, fig. 1, 1a.), Galionella (Lign. 1. fig. 3, 3a.), Actinocyclus (Lign. 1, figs. 4, 5), &c. The most remarkable forms are disciform frustules, having their surfaces elaborately ornamented with hexagonal spots disposed in curves, and bearing some resemblance to the engine-turned case of a watch. Lign. 7, fig. 2, is a small segment of a disc, very highly magnified. These frustules vary in size from 1 /100 to 1 /1000 of an inch in diameter; they are named Coscinodiscus (sieve-like disc), and there are several species: one less richly sculptured, C. patina, is figured Lign. 7, fig. 6. Circular bodies, with five or six lines radiating from the centre to the circumference, like the spokes of a wheel, hence named Actinocyclus (Lign. 7, figs. 4, 5), and spicules of Sponges, are also abundant.
- 68. Lign. 7. Microphytes [69] from the Richmond-earth; highly magnified. Tertiary. Virginia. Fig. 1.—Navicula. 1a. Side view. 2.—Coscinodiscus radiatus; a portion of the circular shield. 3.—Galionella sulcata; the upper figure shows the transverse face of one of the frustules. 3a.—Three united cells viewed laterally. 4, 5.—Actinocyclus. Two species. 6.—Coscinodiscus patina; transverse view. 6a. Lateral view. [69] As the term Infusorial-earth must be abandoned, it will be convenient to substitute a name simply expressive of the nature of the most abundant organisms that enter into the composition of these deposits: that of Microphyta, or Microphytes, (from μικρος, mikros, small, and φυτον, phyton, a plant), signifying very minute vegetables, may perhaps be admissible: in this sense the word microphytal is employed in these pages. When a few grains of the marl are prepared, and mounted on a glass, almost all these varieties will be manifest, so largely is this earth composed of organic structures; in fact, very few inorganic particles are intermixed, the merest pellicle left by the evaporation of a drop of water in which some of the marl has been mixed, teeming with the most beautiful structures. At Petersburg, in Virginia, a sandy marl occurs, interstratified with deposits which, from their shells, are referred to the older tertiary formations. Probably this marl is a continuation of that of Richmond, but it is full of many new forms, associated with those common in the earth of the latter locality.[70] [70] Dr. Bailey, with great liberality, has so amply supplied myself and other observers with specimens of these deposits for examination, that the fossils above described are familiar to all British microscopists. Figures of many of those organisms are given in the American Journal of Science.
- 69. It is an interesting fact, (first observed by Mr. Hamlin Lee,) that the common Scallop (Pecten maximus), as well as the Barnacle (Balanus), feed on diatomaceæ, and their stomachs generally contain numerous cases of Coscinodisci, Dichtyochi, Actinocycli, &c.: a slide prepared and mounted with the contents of the stomachs of these mollusks, presents an assemblage of forms identical with those found in the tertiary earths of Virginia.[71] [71] See my "Thoughts on Animalcules," p. 103. In the mud of the quicksands on the shore at Brighton, Mr. Reginald Mantell found recent Coscinodisci, &c. associated with fossil polythalamia that had been washed out of the chalk, and precipitated with the frustules of the recent diatomaceæ, into the sediments now in progress. The prevalence of marine and fresh-water forms in the same deposit is not unusual; and the remarks of Dr. Bailey on this fact are so pertinent, that I insert them, as a salutary caution against hasty generalizations on subjects connected with these investigations. After describing a species of Galionella (G. moniliformis), as an inhabitant only of salt and brackish water, and stating that he had also found it sixty miles up the Hudson River, near West Point, Dr. Bailey observes—"The Fauna and Flora of the Hudson at this place would, if in a fossil state, be rather puzzling to the geologist, on account of the singular mixture of marine and fluviatile species. While Valisneria and Potamogeton (two common fresh-water plants), grow in such vast quantities, in some places, as to prevent the passage of a boat, and the shore is strewn with fluviatile shells (such as Planorbis, Physa, &c.) in a living state, yet the above plants are entangled with Algæ (sea-weeds), and marine parasitic zoophytes; while the rocks below low- water mark are covered with Balani (barnacles) and minute corallines, and the marine Flora is represented by vast quantities of very elegant sea plants."[72] [72] American Journal of Science, vol. x. p. 41. I must here close this extended notice of the fossil remains of a class of vegetable organisms, which, though for the most part invisible to the unassisted eye as individual forms, constitute by their inconceivable multitudes an important element in the formation of sedimentary deposits. The fact of their having been formerly treated of as animalcules, and generally regarded as belonging to the animal kingdom, rendered a full consideration of the phenomena necessary, in order to place the subject before the reader in a clear and comprehensive point of view.[73]
- 70. FOSSIL FUCOID [73] As both the recent and fossil frustules of Diatomaceæ are beautiful objects for the microscope and polariscope, they are in much request. Specimens mounted on glass slides may be had of Mr. Topping, and Mr. Poulton. See Appendix. Confervites.—The cellular aquatic plants named Confervæ are sometimes found in transparent quartz pebbles, and in chalk, appearing as delicate simple or branched filaments, which, by the aid of the microscope, are seen to be articulated. Seven species are described by authors, but the vegetable nature of some of these is doubtful. A beautiful species in Chalk, first noticed by the late Samuel Woodward, Esq. (author of the Geology of Norfolk), is here figured. Lign. 8. Confervites Woodwardii; nat. Chalk. Norfolk. Fossil Fucoids.—Of the tribe of Algæ which comprises the sea- weeds that are not articulated, many fossil species occur in very ancient, as well as in modern, fossiliferous deposits. In the Lower Silurian rocks of North America, beds of limestone of great extent are full of a large digitated Fucus (Fucoides Alleghaniensis).[74] The Firestone or Malm-rock of Bignor in Sussex abounds in a ramose variety (Fucoides Targionii, Vég. Foss. p. 56), of which specimens are figured in the vignette of this volume, and in Lign. 9. [74] Figured and described in Dr. Harlan's Medical and Physical Researches: Philadelphia, 1835, p. 393. Chondrites.—These fossil algæ approach nearest to the living species of Chondrus (hence the name of the genus). The frond is thick, branched, dichotomous, with cylindrical or claviform divisions, with a smooth surface and without tubercles. The substance of the Bignor fossils is a white friable earth, which strikingly contrasts with the dark grey malm-rock that forms the matrix. As the Sussex Chalk Chondrites appear to be distinct from the Tertiary species named by M. Brongniart C. Targionii, I have, at the suggestion of Mr. Morris,
- 71. Lign. 9. Chondrites Bignoriensis; nat. Malm-rock. Bignor, Sussex. MOCHA-STONE substituted C. Bignoriensis, to indicate the locality in Sussex in which I discovered it forty years since. In the chalk-flints ramose fuci occasionally occur, but not in a state of preservation that admits of the determination of the forms of the originals. The tertiary marls and limestones of Monte Bolca yield several beautiful species of Algæ, one of which is figured in Lign. 10. It is referred to the fossil genus Delesserites (Sternberg), which includes those algæ that have thin, and flat or undulated, smooth, membranous fronds, with a median rib. Of the little plants comprised in the class of cellular cryptogamia, which have stems, leaves, and fructification, but no true vessels, two or three species of Moss and Liverwort have been met with in tertiary strata. Mosses as well as Fuci are occasionally imbedded in quartz pebbles, in which they appear of their natural colour, and apparently floating in the transparent medium. A beautiful green moss, with a Conferva twined round its base, is figured Lign. 11, p. 104, from a specimen described by the late Dr. Macculloch. It is supposed to be related to Hypnum (Geol. Trans. vol. ii.). Moss-agates and Mocha-stones.—The beautiful siliceous pebbles called Moss-agates, and Mocha-stones, will so often come under the notice of the collector, that, although but extremely few, if any, of these objects contain organic remains, the arborescent substances they inclose being merely metallic oxides, a few remarks on their nature may be expected. The late Dr. Macculloch paid considerable attention to the investigation of these bodies, and believed that some of the objects imbedded in the pure and compact quartz were really of vegetable or animal origin; the specimen figured Lign. 11 is of this kind; the fossils being apparently cellular cryptogamous plants. In Geol. Trans, vol. ii., other examples are figured and described by the same sagacious observer. Mr. Bowerbank is of opinion that spongeous structure enters into the composition of almost all the moss-agates, and I have no doubt that in some instances such organisms are present: but in by far the greater number of agates and mocha- stones the inclosed bodies are mere crystallizations; they are arborescent or dendritical oxides of manganese, copper, chlorite, iron, &c. M. Brongniart, who carefully examined a great number of agates and pebbles, with the view of determining if vegetable substances were ever imbedded in them, could not detect a single instance in which the apparent
- 72. Lign. 10 Delesserites (Fucoides) Lamourouxii. Monte Bolca. (Vég. Foss. Br.) Lign. 11. Moss and Conferva, in transparent quartz, × 3. mosses, confervæ, or algæ, were organic; in every case the mineral origin of the pseudo- vegetation was, in his opinion, unequivocal. Some of the beautiful green arborescent bodies in quartz pebbles, even under the microscope, present so close a resemblance to confervæ and mosses, that it is difficult to persuade oneself they are not vegetable structures; but the observations of M. Brongniart appear to me conclusive as to their mineral nature.[75] With the exception of three or four species of Jungermannia, and four or five of Muscites in Amber, M. Brongniart states that he knows but one true fossil plant of the family of Mosses; the Muscites Tournalii from the fresh-water tertiary deposits of Armissan. [75] See Histoire des Végétaux Fossiles, pp. 29- 34. Vascular, or Acrogenous Cryptogamia.—These plants, as the name implies, possess a more complicated structure than the preceding, having vascular tissue as varied as in the phanerogamia. Equisetaceæ.—The common species of Equisetum, or Marestail, is a plant that grows in marshy tracts, and on the banks of ditches and rivers; it has a jointed stalk, garnished with elegant sheaths which embrace the stem, and verticillate linear leaves: it attains a height of two feet, and is half an inch in diameter. In the fossil state there are many plants allied to the Equisetum, but only a few that are generically the same.
- 73. EQUISETITE Lign. 13. Equisetites columnaris. Lign. 12. Equisetum Lyellii. Wealden. Pounceford. nat. Fig. 1. — A stem, having two sheaths, and a bud at the lowermost joint. 2. — Stem of a young plant, with sheaths, preserved in pyrites. 3. — Stem, with the cryptogamous head or upper end. Equisetum Lyellii, Lign. 12.—A species which I discovered in Wealden limestone, at Pounceford (Geol. S. E. p. 245), must have closely resembled the Equisetum fluviatile: it has an articulated cylindrical stem, and regularly dentated sheaths, embracing the stem at the joints. A transverse slice of the stem exhibits under the microscope a cellular structure filled with calc-spar, and forms a beautiful object when viewed with the polarizing apparatus. This plant occurs in many localities of the Wealden in Sussex and Kent; from the railway cuttings near Tonbridge, I collected several fine specimens; it is met with also in the cliffs near Hastings. Equisetites columnaris. Lign. 13.—A gigantic species of Equisetum abounds in the strata of the lower division of the Oolitic or Jurassic formation of Yorkshire, and many fine specimens have been collected, especially from the vicinity of Whitby. In the sandstone of the Inferior Oolite of the Cleveland Hills, Yorkshire, numerous stems of this colossal marestail have been observed standing erect, as if occupying the position in which they grew; the same
- 74. (Ad. Brongn. Pl. 13.) Lower Oolite. Whitby. Fig. 1. — Portion of a stem, showing two articulations, and an intermediate constriction. 1 /3 nat. 2. — A few of the denticulations produced by the sheath, nat. Lign. 14. Calamites decoratus. 1 /3 nat. (Ad. Brongniart. Pl. 14.) Coal Formation. Yorkshire. Fig. 1. — Part of a stem, showing the tubercles for the fact was also discovered at Carlton Bank, near Stokesly, forty miles from the coast. In both localities fossil shells of fresh-water mussels (Uniones) were associated with the vegetable remains. This plant is a true equisetum, differing chiefly from existing species in its gigantic size and arborescent character. The sheaths surrounding the stem, and the verticillate linear leaves, are preserved in some examples: and in all, the furrows left by the imprints of the sheaths are more or less strongly impressed. The stem is not channelled throughout, as in Calamites, the carboniferous plant whose stems at first sight might be mistaken for those of Equisetites, but which are entirely distinct, as will be explained hereafter. The Equisetites columnaris is peculiar to the Oolite; it does not occur in the coal-measures. Specimens have been discovered which indicate a height of twenty feet, and a diameter of several inches.[76] [76] See Hist. Vég. Fossiles, p. 115. A small species of Equisetum (Eq. Brodiei[77]) occurs in the insectiferous limestone of the lower Lias, at Strensham, Worcestershire, associated with the foliage of fresh-water endogenous plants resembling the Potamogeton, or pond- weed, and of supposed dicotyledonous vegetables. [77] Prof. Buckman, in Geol. Journal, vol. vi. p. 413. Calamites. Lign. 14, 15.—Stem articulated, regularly furrowed longitudinally, the articulations naked, or studded with tubercles. The plants of this genus were supposed to be related to the marestail, but to differ in the absence of the encircling sheaths, and in being uniformly striated; but an examination of specimens in a better state of preservation than those previously known, shows their affinity to the gymnosperms. Some of the species are of a gigantic size, being from one to three feet in diameter, and from thirty to forty feet in height. Calamites abound in the coal formation, and must have constituted an important feature in the forests of the carboniferous period; they occur also in more ancient deposits, and some species belong to the earliest
- 75. attachment of leaves. 2. — A portion of the same on a larger scale. CALAMITE terrestrial Flora of which any vestiges are known. In most instances when specimens are found lying in the same plane with the strata, they are pressed flat, but those occurring in a vertical position retain their natural cylindrical form. An outer crust or cylinder of coal generally invests the stem, but traces of the internal structure are rarely preserved. The Calamite consists of a large central column of tissue, surrounded by a ligneous cylinder. The central part has in most instances perished after the death of the plant, and the cavity thus left been filled up with mineral matter. As the hollow ligneous zone is almost always carbonized, and very friable, it is seldom attached to the cast, and consequently the surface of the latter is generally jointed and ribbed. The true external surface of the cortical investment is marked with longitudinal striæ, without any indications of joints or constrictions; but the position of the original articulations is indicated in some specimens by the presence of small verticillate scars, to which leaves were appended[78] as in the example figured by M. Brongniart, of which Lign. 14, fig. 1, is a reduced figure. [78] See Mr. Dawes, "On the Structure of Calamites," Proc. Geol. Soc, 1851, vol. vii. p. 197. Lign. 15. Calamites, in Coal Shale. Fig. 1. — Calamites radiatus, with the remains of one of the sheaths.—1 /2 nat. 2. — Stem, with remains of roots.—1 /2 nat.
- 76. FOSSIL FERN 3. — Calamites approximatus, showing the curved lower end of the plant.[79] —1 /5 nat. [79] This specimen has been inadvertently drawn with the base uppermost. The stellate appearance on the upper part of the stem figured in Lign. 15, fig. 1, is produced by the zone of leaves which surrounded the joint: this character is entirely distinct from the sheath of the Equisetum shown in Lign. 12. This specimen points out the importance of carefully examining and preserving the stone around fossil stems; had this precaution been lost sight of in this instance, no knowledge would have been obtained of this important botanical character. It is rarely that any traces of the roots remain; the fossil figured (fig. 2) is from the Foss. Flor. A beautiful example of the foliage of a species of Calamites is represented in Lign. 59, fig. 2. Upright stems of Calamites occur in the Coal formation near Pictou, in North America; and in one example a group of ten or twelve stems, covering an area of two square feet, sprung from one root.[80] [80] Dawson, Geol. Proc. vol. vii. p. 195. See Sir C. Lyell's Travels in North America, vol. ii. p. 195. Filicites, or Ferns. We now arrive at the consideration of one of the most interesting families of the vascular cryptogamia that adorned the Flora of the ancient world, and the living species of which impart beauty and elegance to the scenery of the countries where they prevail. The most essential character of these vegetables, is that of developing their fructification on the leaves; a fact familiar to every one who has even but cursorily examined the Polypody growing on our walls, or the Brake of our hedge-rows and commons. The largest species of British ferns scarcely exceed four or five feet in height; but the arborescent or tree-ferns, of warm climates, attain an altitude of from thirty to forty feet. There is too this peculiarity in the arborescent forms, that while in our indigenous species the leaves surround the stem, and incline towards the upper part of the plant, the foliage of the former bends downwards, and spreads out from the crown, or summit, into an elegant canopy.
- 77. Lign. 16. Pecopteris Sillimani; nat. Coal Shale. Ohio. a.The Stem. b.Leaf-stalk, or petiole. c.Leaf, or frond, which is bipinnate. d. e.Leaflets, or pinnæ; the upper, d, are entire; the lower, e, are pinnatifid. f.The pinnules, lobes, or segments. g.The midrib, or median vein. h.The veins. The veins are introduced in the leaflets, d; but in the lower ones, e, the midribs only are marked. The leaves of our branched ferns are persistent, and when shed, the markings left by their attachment to the stalk are soon obliterated. In the arborescent ferns, on the contrary, the petioles become detached from their bases, and fall entire, leaving scars or cicatrices on the stem; and these impressions are so regularly and symmetrically disposed, as to afford characters by which the trunks may be distinguished from those of other trees. The stems of the tree-ferns are therefore easily recognized in a fossil state externally, by their cylindrical forms without ramification, and by the regular disposition and peculiar character of the scars left by the separation of the petioles; and, internally by that peculiar zone, formed of bundles of ligneous tissue inclosed in sheaths, which encircles the central axis, as shown in the transverse sections in Lign. 2, ante, p. 62. The leaves may be identified by the form of their segments, which are disposed with remarkable regularity, and have a peculiar mode of subdivision; and above all, by the delicacy, evenness, and distribution of the
- 78. veins. There are upwards of two thousand species of living ferns, and in the fossil kingdom the number is considerable; more than two hundred have been collected from the carboniferous formation. The recent tree-ferns are confined almost exclusively to the equinoctial regions; humidity and heat being the conditions most favourable to their development (Vég. Foss. p. 141. Bd. p. 461. Wond. p. 727). From the elegance and diversity of form of their foliage, fossil ferns are the most remarkable and attractive vegetable remains in the ancient strata. The greater number are from the coal deposits, the fern-leaves generally occurring in the schists or shales that form the roof of the beds of coal. Many of the strata are made up of carbonized fern-leaves and stems closely pressed together. The roof of a coal-mine, when newly exposed, often presents a most interesting appearance, from the abundance and variety of leaves, branches, and stems, that occur either in relief, or impressed on the dark glossy surface. The specimens selected for illustration exhibit the principal modes of venation on which the genera are founded. The fossil genera have been established by M. Ad. Brongniart, from the form of the leaves and the characters of their venation; that is, the distribution of the vessels. In the following descriptions some botanical phrases are necessarily employed; a few terms of frequent occurrence are explained in Lign. 16. Pachypteris [81] (thick-fern). Lign. 17.—In this genus from the lower Oolite, the fronds are pinnated, or bipinnated, the leaflets entire, without visible veins, having but a single midrib, and contracted at the base. The absence of veins, and the leaflets not being lobed, are the essential generic distinctions. [81] The names of the genera are derived from pteris, fern, to which prefixed a term indicative of the peculiar characters. Lign. 17. Pachypteris lanceolata. Inferior Oolite. Whitby. Sphenopteris (wedge-leaf). Lign. 18.—The leaves are twice or thrice pinnated, the leaflets wedge-shaped, contracted or narrowest at their base, and more or
- 79. Welcome to Our Bookstore - The Ultimate Destination for Book Lovers Are you passionate about books and eager to explore new worlds of knowledge? At our website, we offer a vast collection of books that cater to every interest and age group. From classic literature to specialized publications, self-help books, and children’s stories, we have it all! Each book is a gateway to new adventures, helping you expand your knowledge and nourish your soul Experience Convenient and Enjoyable Book Shopping Our website is more than just an online bookstore—it’s a bridge connecting readers to the timeless values of culture and wisdom. With a sleek and user-friendly interface and a smart search system, you can find your favorite books quickly and easily. Enjoy special promotions, fast home delivery, and a seamless shopping experience that saves you time and enhances your love for reading. Let us accompany you on the journey of exploring knowledge and personal growth! ebookgate.com