300 SAGACITY AND MORALITY OF PLANTS. 



of the remainder. A few cycadaceous plants may 

 have commenced existence. On the other hand, 

 the flowerless plants {Cryptogarnia) had attained their 

 maximum of differentiation, adaptation, magnitude, 

 and geographical distribution. Perhaps every one of 

 the existing types of cryptogamic vegetation, except 

 Mosses and Lichens, had been evolved at that dis- 

 tant period, not even excepting the Rhizocarps. 

 Since then these types have been more or less stereo- 

 typed ; Tree-ferns, Club -mosses. Horsetails, and 

 Rhizocarps have not been materially modified, ex- 

 cept in size. Few of them have been able to maintain 

 their Carboniferous bulk, for they have had to con- 

 tend with new-comers of higher organisation. 



Similar characters distinguish the Carboniferous 

 floras of all countries — Europe, America, China, and 

 Australia. 



The insects found fossilised in the Coal formation 

 are similarly scanty, and limited to one or two 

 orders. This general absence of flowers and insects 

 in the Carboniferous strata is very suggestive. 



Millions of years must have passed away, from 

 the time when our coal-beds were formed, through 

 excess of vegetable life, to the Miocene Period. We 

 get numerous glimpses of the progress made by the 

 vegetable kingdom in the meantime, one of which 

 we have glanced at during the Wealden. But the 

 Miocene flora bursts upon us in magnificent develop- 

 ment and modification. Its most striking peculiarity 



