184 Mr Witham's Observations on Fossil Vegetables 



-to' 



favour the development of these plants had prevailed in a very 

 high degree. May we not now go a little farther, and, from the 

 recent discoveries, suppose that heat and moisture had an equal 

 effect upon plants of different genera from those of the vascu- 

 lar cryptogamic ? When we discover stems of fossil plants 

 thirty, sixty, and even seventy feet long — when each torrent 

 by its violence uncovers so many relics of ancient times — nay, 

 whenever, by the busy ingenuity of man, the lower as well as 

 the higher sedimentary desposits are interfered with or dis- 

 turbed, some previously unobserved fossil is discovered, it is 

 but fair to conclude that the same causes have equally affect- 

 ed them. 



" By the investigations of many of my friends, and by my 

 own observations, I am induced (as already noticed) to think 

 that plants of the phanerogamic class will be found to occur 

 in greater abundance in the earlier sedimentary deposits than 

 was before believed. The day is now arrived, when doubts 

 and difficulties as to the class and family to which they are to 

 be referred, must give way under the microscopic examination 

 of the internal structure of these fossil plants ; and I am hap- 

 py in having it in my power to contribute in some degree to 

 the elucidation of this interesting subject." 



After these and other prefatory observations, Mr Witham 

 states the arrangement of his volume, which is, " 1st, To offer 

 some remarks on the Vegetation of the first period of the An- 

 cient World, that is, from the first deposit of the transition 

 series to the top of the coal-field ; Zdly, To present an account 

 of Fossil Vegetables found at Lennel Braes and Allanbank 

 Mill, in Berwickshire ; 3c%, To exhibit representations of the 

 organic texture, as discovered by the microscope, of several 

 fossil plants of the Coal formation, Mountain Limestone group, 

 and of the Lias, together with corresponding representations 

 of recent plants, of similar or analogous structure, and compa- 

 rative views of other fossil and recent vegetables, accompanied 

 with descriptive references ; and, 4sthly, To conclude with some 

 general remarks on the varieties represented and described, and 

 on the subject of fossil plants in general." 



The first and second parts of Mr Witham's divisions we shall 

 for the present pass over, not, however, without remarking the 

 valuable facts which they record. The section of the work 



