PALAEONTOLOGY. 279 



the theoretical views that have been started regarding the 

 simplicity of primitive forms of organic life, or that vegetable 

 pieceded animal life, and that the former was necessarily de- 

 pendent upon the latter. The existence of races of men in- 

 habiting the icy regions of the North Polar lands, and whose 

 nutriment is solely derived from fish and cetaceans, shows the 

 possibility of maintaining life independently of vegetable sub- 

 stances. After the devonian system and the mountain lime- 

 stone, we come to a formation, the botanical analysis of which 

 has made such brilliant advances in modern times.* The 

 coal measures contain not only fern-like cryptogamic plants 

 and phanerogamic monocotyledons (grasses, yucca-like Lilia- 

 r3a3, and palms), but also gymnospermic dicotyledons (Conifene 

 ind Cycadese), amounting in all to nearly 400 species, as char- 

 acteristic of the coal formations. Of these we will only enu- 

 merate arborescent Calamites and Lycopodiacea>, scaly Lepi- 

 dodendra, Sigillaria?, which attain a height of sixty feet, and 

 are sometimes found standing upright, being distinguished by 

 a double system of vascular bundles, cactus-like Stigmariae, a 

 great number of ferns, in some cases the stems, and in others 

 the fronds alone being found, indicating by their abundance 

 the insular form of the dry land,t Cycadea3,t especially palms, 

 although fewer in number, Asterophyllites, having whorl-like 

 leaves, and allied to the Naiades, with araucaria-like Coniferee,!! 

 which exhibit faint traces of annual rings. This difference of 

 character from our present vegetation, manifested in the vege- 

 tative forms w r hich were so luxuriously developed on the drier 



* By the important labors of Count Sternberg, Adolphe Brongniart, 

 Goppert, and Lindley. 



t See Robert Brown's Botany of Congo, p. 42, and the Memoir of 

 .he unfortunate D'Urville, De la Distribution des Fougeres ur la Sur* 

 face du Globe Terrestre. 



\ Such are the Cycadeae discovered by Count Sternberg in the old 

 carboniferous formation at Radnitz, in Bohemia, and described by 

 Corda (two species of Cycatides and Zamites Cordai. See Gftppert, 

 FogsHe Cycadeen in den Arleiten der Schles. Gesellschaft, fur vaterl. 

 Cnliur im Jahr 1843, s. 33, 37, 40, and 50). A Cycadea ( Pterophyllum 

 gouorrhachis, G6pp.) has also been found iu the carboniferous form* 

 lions in Upper Silesia, at KSnigshfltte. 



$ Lindley, Fos$U Flora, No. xv., p. 1G3. 



(I Fossil Conifers, in Bucklaud's Gcfloey, p. 483-490. \Vitham has 

 the great merit of having first recognized the existence of Couifenc in 

 the early vegetation of the old carboniferous formation. Almost all the 

 trunks of trees found in this formation were previously regarded aa 

 palms. The species of the genus Araucaria are, however, not pecul- 

 iar to the coal formations of the British Islands; they likewise occur in 

 Upper Silesia. 



