30 Mr.Witham on the Vegetation of the First Periodqfthe World. 



promoting the examination of these ancient relics, the more 

 likely are they to perceive the time fast approaching, when 

 we shall be able with greater certainty to ascertain each de- 

 posit by the peculiarity of its vegetable fossils. 



The essential character therefore of this first period of ve- 

 getation is proved to be the predominance of vascular crypto- 

 gamic plants ; and Vie have here a most striking example of 

 the great development which the species in question had at- 

 tained in this first period of vegetable creation, when the two 

 principal agents, heat and moisture, had evidently exerted an 

 extraordinary influence. 



Geologists have entertained, and do entertain, very different 

 notions respecting the origin of coal. 



It appears very probable, from the singular development of 

 the vegetation of the first period, that these different combus- 

 tible beds may have been deposited as a kind of peat of greater 

 or less extent, formed from the remainder of vegetables, and 

 on which other vegetables still grew. This opinion is, I should 

 think, greatly confirmed by the description just given of the 

 Newcastle coal-field. It appears also the more probable, as 

 it is well known that many plants of the families composing 

 this early vegetation, grow abundantly in localities of this kind. 

 The Equisetum (Horsetail), the Osmunda regalis (Royal 

 Moonwort), and the Lycopodium (Club Moss), are all indi- 

 genous in our peat soils. Again, we can scarcely doubt, that 

 at this remote epoch our atmosphere had a very different 

 composition from what it now has, and that its difference ex- 

 erted a powerful influence upon the formation of those bodies 

 of vegetable combustion. The comparison of the successive 

 development of vegetables and animals is not one of the least 

 remarkable parts of the study of these fossil organized bodies. 

 This is beautifully expressed by M. A. Brongniart. He dis- 

 plays by a philosophical reasoning the effects produced by a 

 supposed cause. He states with great perspicuity, why land 

 animals did not exist at one period; why cold-blooded animals 

 became more numerous at another period ; and lastly, he gives 

 cogent I'easons for the appearance of animals of a more com- 

 plicated structure, the mammiferae and birds, in the fourth 

 period. 



M. A. Brongniart's reasonings upon this subject are so well 

 epitomized by Professor Jameson, in the PhilosophicalJournal 

 for March 1829, that I should think it improper at present 

 to enter into more minute details. 



The study of this occult science truly opens a hidden field 

 of animated beings and things, whose early call into existence 



proves 



