9'4 M. De CandoUe on Fossil Vegetables. 



surprising, inasmuch as the present flora of all these countries 

 very much resemble one another. One fact which is well worthy 

 of remark is this, that of the twenty-three species supplied by 

 the coal-mines of North America, fourteen have been discovered 

 in Europe. This proportion, which unquestionably is greater 

 than that v/hich now exists between the living specimens of the 

 two regions, proves a very remarkable similitude. Possibly these 

 two continents of our globe were not separated from one another 

 at that early epoch, or possibly there were then islands between 

 them. Of the three specimens from New Holland, one has been 

 found also in the coal-mine of Rajmahl in India. Of this last 

 locality, M. Brongniart, in 1828, knew only two species, one of 

 which, a fern, is the same as one of the specimens from New 

 Holland, and the other belongs to a distinct genus of palm. 



These facts seem to prove, that at this epoch there was a 

 greater uniformity of the vegetation on the surface of the earth, 

 than exists in the times in which we are now living. 



Not only did many species flourish indiscriminately, in coun- 

 tries widely separated from each other; but.it is also to be ob- 

 served, that the proportions of the great classes were wonder- 

 fully unifoi'm. Then the aetheogamea, (ferns, lycopodiacea?, &c.) 

 predominated equally in Europe, America, and Australia. In 

 all these localities they constitute about two-thirds of the 

 species. 



As now, the phanerogamese had, upon the whole, a more 

 confined range than the cryptogameae, for of nine of the former 

 class in America, four only, i. e. forty-four per cent., were com- 

 mon with the European species; whilst of fourteen of the latter 

 there were eleven, i. e. seventy-eight per cent, which were com- 

 mon. 



The succeeding formations, down to the Jura one, present too 

 small a number of species from different localities, to enable us 

 to institute any corresponding comparison among them. In the 

 Jura series, as examinvid in Germany and in France, it is sur- 

 prising how few of the same species have been discovered in 

 diff'erent localities. Out of fifty-one species which are enumerated 

 by M. Brongniart, I see only two which are marked as occurring 

 in the two countries. The same remark might be made of the 

 subsequent formations ; from whence it may follow, that since 



