286 Geological Distribution of Fossil Plants. 



coal formation, many of the fossil plants evidently cannot be 

 classed in the families now existing, and form new groups of 

 importance. The Calamites^ the Lepidodendrons^ihe; Sigillariw, 

 and the Aster ophyllece^ are of this description, and many 

 other less known genera will probably require to be raised 

 to the rank of distinct families. 



But, above the families, we have the classes and the great 

 divisions of the vegetable kingdom ; and it may be asked, 

 whether those families peculiar to the primitive vegetation 

 of the globe, and so different from those which now inhabit 

 it, nevertheless belong to the great divisions included in the 

 vegetable kingdom of the present day, or if some of them 

 are not to be referred to divisions altogether special, and dis- 

 tinct from the great types of living vegetable organisation. 

 This great question cannot be resolved with certainty in the 

 present state of our knowledge regarding these fossils. 

 Nevertheless, all the observations hitherto made, seem to 

 shew that this ancient creation may be included among the 

 great types of the actual creation, without, however, present- 

 ing the whole of them. 



Thus the living vegetable kingdom consists of five great 

 divisions : the Cellular Cryptogams or Amphigens ; the Vas- 

 cular Cryptogams or Acrogens ; the Dicolgledonous Fhanero- 

 gams, Gymnosperms and Angiosperms ; and the Monocotyle- 

 donous Phanerogams. Of these five divisions, the three first 

 evidently existed at the carboniferous epoch, whereas the two 

 last seem to have been entirely awanting : there is nothing, 

 at least, which establishes with certainty their existence, 

 and every thing on the contrary tends to render it doubtful. 

 In this respect recent researches have only confirmed what 

 I affirmed more than twenty years ago, viz., the absence of 

 Phanerogamic Dicotyledonous Angiosperms, and even the 

 absence of Monocotyledons, of which the existence at that 

 time appeared to me very doubtful. 



New specimens, collected and studied with care in England, 

 Germany, and France, have, however, introduced import- 

 ant changes as to the plants which I formerly regarded 

 as Acrogenous or Vascular Cryptogams. The progress thus 

 made has been caused by the discovery of fragments of the 



