NP: UL E E DES E T EP T4 IDE WEST NE EEE at SE Ce MA (et EA 
BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 213 
spoils, and then has put together the forests, fields and oases 
of past centuries. Give Cuvier a bone, and he will set the 
whole animal before you ;—and thus Goeppert, with a leaf, re- 
constructs the tree, and with a grain of pollen, revivifies the 
flower! Such a flower, too, as the human eye could never 
have discerned without the aid of science— science, which 
defies all the ravages of time. 
* Let us cast a glance on the apartment where our Breslau 
Professor passes many hours in meditation. "There are 236 
fragments of transition rocks, such as we tread upon in the 
Ardennes and on the banks of the Meuse; 1548 pieces of 
coal, similar to what you would burn any day and perceive 
nothing remarkable in it; 35 blocks of variegated freestone, 
of the same kind as served to build the Cathedral of Stras- 
bourg, and those churches in Mayence where M. Victor 
. Hugo could see nothing but plaster of Paris monuments ; 122 
specimens of lias from the coasts of Britain, in which English 
ladies have detected real antediluvian monsters; 242 heaps 
of green sandstone and of chalk; 742 portions of lignite and 
of turf; and 259 of those small flat slabs, which on the banks 
of the Rhine are employed for the purpose, when put into 
the hogsheads, of giving fresh spirit to wine which is a cen- 
tury old. Such is M. Goeppert’s Museum. 
“ M. Brongniart, of the Institute, has paid much attention 
to fossil vegetation; his plan consists in comparing antedi- 
luvian productions with those of the present world, and the 
plants of former days with what now exist. M. Goeppert’s 
mode is quite different; for he proves, beyond all contradiction, 
— that it is impossible to discern the distinction between two of 
our common and very similar trees, as the common Pine and the 
1 Weymouth, by the mere examination of their internal structure. 
His philosophy, therefore, consists in clearly separating the 
fossil from the living creation, and giving to the former a 
distinct nomenclature and object,—more with reference to 
geology than botany. He divides fossil plants into three 
classes :—those in which the stems, leaves, flowers, or fruits 
have stony or earthy layers interposed between them, and 
Pe eee 
