OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 39 
appears pretty evident that ferns once occupied the same relation to other plants in the primeval 
Flora, that the grasses do to the present. 
Cellulares.—Flowerless Plants.—Of all fossil plants these are the most numerous in genera and 
species. In the coal formation scarcely a fragment of shale can be broken that does not exhibit 
numerous fossil ferns exquisitely preserved. 
The cellulares are divided into families corresponding with those of recent plants. Among the 
Equisetacee we have the genus Equisetum, which is also a living genus. Calamites is a very 
common fossil, resembling the latter in being jointed and closely furrowed, but it is sometimes found 
one foot in diameter. 
The Filices constitute an exceedingly beautiful family of fossil plants, that abound in the coal 
measures. ‘Their most minute parts, with the fruit and veins, are often preserved in a manner that 
would rival the herbarium of a Botanist. 
Lycopodiacee includes genera that are at present represented by living plants only in the tropics. 
It is in this and the preceding family that we find those magnificent fossil tree ferns that are met 
with in the coal formation, and which must have attamed the height of ordinary trees. The 
Lepidodendron, a plant of this family, is one of the most numerous of the characteristic plants of 
the coal strata. It is known by the regularly deposited lozenge shaped scars that cover the bark of 
the plant. 
The Alga, or sea-weeds, have also their fossil representatives ; and fucoides are among the 
earliest organisms found embedded in rocks. In New York they occur in great numbers in the 
Silurian rocks. 
The distribution of living plants in relation to climate, temperature, and other atmospheric con- 
ditions, has been studied with extraordinary philosophic ability by Humboldt; and, guided by 
these researches, it becomes no very difficult problem for the Botanist to determine the climate of 
acountry from its Flora. 'That this analogy existed in former periods, we have every reason to 
believe ; but that the geographical range of species was far greater than at present, is quite certain. 
We have no living plants common to this continent and to Europe, and yet many of the fossil 
plants of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Alabama are identical with British fossils. Uniformity of 
climate, then, as indicated by ancient Floras, must have extended over vast zones—so that there 
would be but little coincidence between the Isothermal lines of the carboniferous period and those 
of the present day. 
Researches in Fossil Botany, presented by Brongniant, Lindley, and other distinguished Bota- 
nists, have shown that the ancient Floras mark three well defined periods. The first begins with 
the oldest rocks that contain any traces of fossil plants, and ends with that of the carboniferous 
rocks inclusive. The plants of this epoch, as a group, are characterised by the predominance of 
those of the class Cellulares, consisting of fuci and ferns in vast numbers and of great size, such 
as tree-ferns, lepidodendra, &c. Besides these we find in the Flora of this first epoch, Monocoty- 
ledonous, as well as Dicotyledonous plants, such as palms and coniferous trees. 
The whole Flora represents one belonging to the moist and warm climate peculiar to intertropical 
islands. Such it seems was once the climate that included the region extending between Nova 
Scotia and Alabama on our continent. 
The second epoch embraces the period between the new red sandstone and the chalk inclusive. 
