76 Cornus florida.—Flint Ridge. 
wear a most enchanting appearance. ‘The soil is so very congenial 
to the growth of the Cornus florida, or dog wood, that these trees ve- 
getate in countless numbers, and being now in full bloom, their clear 
white petals, are finely contrasted with the deep green of the forest, 
and no cultivated orchard of fruit trees, ever displayed such an array 
of splendor and beauty. 
Fossil arborescent Ferns.—In the siesta I visited a deposit of 
coarse sandstone, three miles west of Zanesville, which is literally 
filled with the broken trunks and branches of various species of the 
arborescent fern and other fossil plants of the antediluvian period. 
I brought away several specimens, and amongst them is one species 
which still retains portions of the spines or sete, that. grew in the 
center of the scales which covered the surface and formed the corti- 
cal portion of these singular trees, so admirably fitted to the purpose 
for which they were apparently created, viz. that of furnishing an 
inexhaustible supply of fuel for man, when the present forests are 
removed to make room for the immense tillage that will, in time, be 
needed for the support of the teeming millions, destined to people 
the earth, when wars shall cease and diseases shall be greatly dimin- 
ished, if not entirely banished. Buried deep under superincumbent 
strata, these ancient forests lie bituminized and changed to an imper- 
ishable material, in the form of ‘* Stone coal !”’ How glorious and how 
wonderful the providence of the Creator, in the material, as well as 
in the moral world. ‘The whole region about Zanesville, is full of 
interesting relics of by-gone ages; descriptions of many of which 
are given in a late number of this Journal. 
May 21, * Flint Ridge.” —I visited “Flint ridge,” or the great 
siliceous deposit, in company with my friend N. ‘This interesting 
formation has been frequently noticed in former publications. Be- 
ing desirous of obtaining a more correct knowledge of its relation to 
the other rock strata, with which it is associated, I visited the nearest 
locality to Zanesville, distant about twelye miles. The deposit is 
here found, as well as in other places, near the tops of the hills, 
sometimes entirely on the surface, covering large tracts with its bro- 
ken fragments ; at others, lying at considerable depths beneath a rich 
argillaceous soil and a luxuriant growth of forest trees. The spot 
ehosen for the present examination lies in Hopewell township, Mus- 
kingum county, near the line which divides it from Licking county, 
on the extreme head of the Brushy fork of Licking creek; in the 
bed of a deep ravine, The siliceous rock is here hollowed out, by 
