NOTICES OF BOOKS. 253 



Comft 



at the same period^ there are any very strong indications. 



That Cycadem existed abundantly at the period of the Lias and 

 Oolite, if not earlier^ along with the above-mentioned Families. 



That various other Dicotyledonous Natural Orders existed in the 

 time of the Chalk. 



The interval of time embraced within these periods, whether greater 

 or less than has since elapsed, is sufficient to ensure our not taking too 

 hmited a view as regards time; the botanical facts again are incontest- 

 ably the leading ones of those jaeriods; and the conclusions to be de- 

 rived from a study of them are 



That the various Dicotyledonous Natural Orders of the Chalk afford 

 no proof of being higher nor lower in development than those of the 

 present day, but much of their being equal in rank ; that the Oycadem 

 of the Lias and Oolite are certainly as highly organized as their existing 

 allies ; that the Gonifet'm are too imperfect to afford the smallest evi- 

 dence of their relative development; that the Ferns of the Oolite and 

 Coal are as highly organized as those of the present day; and that the 

 LycQpodiacece of the Carboniferous epoch are, in general structure, the 

 same with those now existing, but were very much more highly de- 

 veloped in stature and organization. 



It is further to be remarked that the above Natural Orders embrace 

 some of the most highly organized in the vegetable kingdom ; though 

 with regard to that which Ave consider as amongst the very highest, 

 namely the ConifeTce,* the evidence is the most incomplete as to the 

 perfection of its members, as compared with those now existing. 



The only arguments hitherto adduced in favour of progressive de^ 

 velopment, drawn from the vegetable kingdom, are, we think, very 



• That the Conifcr^s occupy so bigh a place in the scale of Phffinogamic plant* 

 as we would assign them, wiU be disputed by those who attach more importance to 

 their defective floral envelope and ovary, than to the astonishing complexity of their 

 reproductive organs, the perfection of their woody tissues, the rarity or absence of 

 spiral vessels, except in their rudimentary tissues, their physiologioil peculianties and 

 especiaUy the slovf dcvelopmeut of the poUen-tube, etc and operation of fecundation. 

 In the development of their ovules and pollen they rank far above all o her flower- 

 ing plants, as^also in the anatomy of their wood, and their numerons cotycxJons ete., . 

 whilst in dl that regards the st«cture of their seed, their gernnnation. and the de- 

 velopment of their Ixis, they are perfectly and typically Dicotyledonous, Exogenous. 

 Exol-hizal, and Aeramphibryal. Besides these i>oi«t3, ^..Z^.. ha- both a pr.auth to 

 the mule flower, and either a i.e.ianth or ovary to the ^-^-'^-\^ ^^ 77; 

 ing of the ovule is eertaiuly not (as Gri.Iith *»'PI'««^) « P"^ "f ' ""»*»' '^^ 

 4fm.m «r p..,„„„c„.,.„a T,n rM^ined. its churactc.. must be raodifu-l 



