1825.] Climateof the Antediluvian World. 99 



The perfect state in which most of the plants belonging to the 

 coal formation are found, is calculated to do away all idea of their 

 having been brought from distant regions by powerful currents, 

 or by the retreat of waters. Their leaves, many of which are of 

 the most slender and delicate structure, are found fully expanded, 

 and in their natural position in regard to the rest of the plant, 

 and laid out, as it were, with as much care as if in the liortus 

 siccus of a botanist. The minutest parts do not appear to have 

 suffered attrition or injury of any kind. Those persons who 

 have not had the benefit of consulting extensive collections of 

 geology may see the proofs of this assertion in the plates of 

 Knorr, Schlottheira,* .Sternberg,t Parkington, and Brogniart,;]: 

 and in those belonging to the numerous monographs on fossil 

 plants, which are to be found in the Transactions of learned 

 societies. 



It is quite impossible to reconcile the many facts of this kind 

 with the effects of any sudden or violent change of place, or 

 with a long journey however gentle. Compare the calm deposit 

 of shells and the appearances of the still calmer death of the 

 antediluvian vegetable world, with the boulder stones, the gravel, 

 and the disjointed, dispersed, and fractured osteology of the 

 diluvian deposits, and it will be allowed that there is not the 

 slightest analogy between these classes of events. § The fossil 

 plants of some of the lowest strata, such as those which belong 

 to the oldest coal formations, are either of the fern tribe, or they 

 are arborescent monocotyledonous plants resembling palms, or 

 as M. Adolphus Brogniart has justly remarked upon the autho- 

 rity of M. DescandoUes, dracenas yuccas and pandanuses. 



But it is acknowledged that the living plants which have the 

 nearest resemblance to these antediluvians, are tropical plants 

 which have not yet been found beyond the 39th or 40th degree 

 of north latitude. Every coal country in every part of the world 

 which has hitherto been examined, abounds in the fossil remains 

 of similar vegetables; and it may be remarked in the very outset 

 of this essay, that as certain plants, perhaps I might say all 

 plants, belong to specific temperatures, or at least depend for 

 their life and health on heat much more than on soil, and as 

 most of the remains of plants belonging to the coal formation 

 appear from their integrity to have been buried where they grew, 

 we are forced to admit the conclusion, that wherever they are 

 found, there must have been a warm temperature. 



The laws of vegetable life as relating to temperature are posi- 

 tive, and, therefore, when connected with the individuals of the 



♦ Die petrifactcnl<iinde. 



+ Vcrsuch einer(icogiiostisch — botanischcn Darstillung iler Flora der Vorwelt. 

 X Sur la Classification ct Uistribution tics Vegetaux Fossiles. 



§ On tliis subject consult Blumenbach's Specimen Archjeologiae TelUiris, &c. and 

 Brcisbach's Instituzione Geolopici, 



II 2 



