PALiEONTOLOGY. 279 



the tlieonjtical views that have been started regavdiDg the 

 simphcity of primitive forms of organic hfe, or that vegetable 

 pieceded animal life, and tliat the former was necessarily dc^ 

 pendent upon the latter. The existence of races of men in- 

 habiting the icy regions of the North Polar lands, and whose 

 nutriment is solely derived from fish and cetaceans, shows the 

 possibility of maintaining life independently of vegetable sub- 

 stances. After the devonian system and the mountain lime- 

 stone, we come to a formation, the botanical analysis of wdiich 

 has made such brilliant advances in modern times.* The 

 coal measures contain not only fern-like cryptogamic plants 

 and phanerogamic monocotyledons (grasses, yucca-like Lilia- 

 rea?, and palms), but also gymnospermic dicotyledons (Coniferce 

 xiid Cycadea?), amounting in all to nearly 400 species, as char- 

 acteristic of the coal formations. Of these we will only enu- 

 merate arborescent Calamites and Lycopodiacese, scaly Lepi- 

 dodendra, Sigillaria?, which attain a height of sixty feet, and 

 are sometimes found standing upright, being distinguished by 

 a double system of vascular bundles, cactus-like Stigmarise, a 

 great number of ferns, in some cases the stems, and in others 

 the fronds alone being found, indicating by their abundance 

 the insular form of the dry land,t Cycadece,! especially palms, 

 although fewer in number, s^ Asterophyllites, having whorl-like 

 leaves, and allied to the Naiades, with araucaria-like Conifera3,il 

 which exhibit faint traces of annual rings. This difference of 

 character from our present vegetation, manifested in the vege- 

 tative forms which w^ere so luxuriously developed on the drier 



* By the important labors of Count Sternberg, Adolpbe Brongniart, 

 Goppert, and Lindley. 



t See Robert "Brown's Botany of Congo, p. 42, and the Memoir of 

 ,be unfortunate D'Urville, De la Distribution des Fougeres sur la Suv' 

 face du Globe Terrestre. 



X Such are the Cycadeoe discovered by Count Sternberg in the old 

 carboniferous formation at Radnitz, in Bohemia, and described by 

 Corda (two species of Cycatides and Zamites Cordai. See Goppert, 

 Fossile Cycadeen in den Arbeiten der Schlcs. Gesellschaft, fur vaterL 

 Cullur im Jahr 1843, s. 33, 37, 40, and 50). A Cycadea (Pterophyllum 

 gonorrhachis, Gopp.) has also been found in the carboniferous forma- 

 tions in Upper Silesia, at Konigshtitte. 



^ Lindley, Fossil Flora, No. xv., p. 1G3. 



II Fossil ConifertB, in Bucklaud's Geology, p. 483-490. Witham has 

 the great merit of having first recognized the existence of Coniferce in 

 the early vegetation of the old carb(niiferous formation. Almost all the 

 trunks of trees found in this formation were previously regarded as 

 palms. The species of the genus Araucaria are, however, not pecul- 

 iar to the coal formations tif the British Islands ; they likewise occur in 

 Upper Silesia. 



