326 Different Iloras of the Rock-Formations. 
Etienne, Autun, &c., that branches have been found, at least 
in France. 
But these facts, which I state with much diffidence, as the 
result of observations made by me in the different coal-basins 
of France, have so much the more need of being generalised 
by observations made in other localities where the position 
of the beds is frequently surrounded with much obscurity, and 
differently designated by the most distinguished geologists. 
After enumerating the genera of fossils belonging to the 
carboniferous period, and indicating the number of species 
supposed to be determined, amounting to 500, M. Brongniart 
continues :— 
‘What strikes us most forcibly, is the small number of 
vegetables which constituted this flora of the ancient world. 
It is true that this enumeration of the fossil vegetables of the 
carboniferous period contains scarcely any others than those 
of the coal-formation of Europe. A considerable number, 
however, have been brought from North America, and the 
observations hitherto made upon them shew that the greater 
part of the species are identical with those of Europe. 
Thus, while this enumeration does not exceed 500 species, 
the existing flora of Europe comprehends upwards of 6000 
Phenerogams ; that of Germany, or rather Central Europe 
alone, more than 5000; and, if we include the Cryptogams, 
these numbers will rise to at least 11,000, and 9000 for Cen- 
tral Europe alone. 
The flora of the carboniferous period comprehended, there- 
fore, at most, a twentieth part of the number of vegetables 
now growing on the surface of Europe ; and this number of 
species, moreover, corresponds to a long period during which 
diverse species succeeded each other, so that we may admit, 
with much probability, that never more than 100 species ex- 
isted simultaneously. We thus perceive what was the poverty, 
and especially the uniformity of this vegetation, with regard 
more particularly to the number of species, compared with 
the abundance and variety of the forms of the present period. 
The complete absence of the ordinary Dicotyledons or An- 
giosperms, and the almost equally complete absence of the 
Monocotyledons, sufficiently explain this low state of the 
