58 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



remains of vegetables of the carboniferous type, 

 such as Lepidodendra and ferns. Although the 

 vegetable remains are so few in the Silurian strata 

 in this country, more than 800 species of fossil 

 animals have been discovered, almost exclusively 

 belonging to the Invertebrata, that is to say ani- 

 mals in whose structure the back-bone does not 

 occur. This our readers will observe is what 

 might be expected in the earliest development 

 of animal existence. But the fact that the 

 animals peculiar to the Silurian seas existed in 

 prodigious multitudes is itself evidence that the 

 vegetation must have been proportionately abun- 

 dant, although consisting, it may be, in great 

 measure, only of the simplest forms of sea-weed ; 

 for we must take into view the relation which 

 marine plants bear to marine animals, either as 

 their food, or as the source of the oxygen requi- 

 site to their existence. The various remains 

 belonging to the system now referred to may be 

 divided into those of Zoophytes, Molluscs, and 

 Crustaceans. 



The ZOOPHYTES comprise various kinds of coral, 

 among which the prevailing forms are those of 

 Catenipora, or chain-coral, and Cyathophyllum, or 

 that of a cup-like figure. These corals appear in 

 immense quantities in the limestone rocks of 

 Dudley. Other zoophytes also occur, such as 

 Graptolites, and various kinds of Crinoidea. 



The SILURIAN MOLLUSCA embrace a consider- 

 able variety of bivalve shells analogous to those 

 which now swarm in our seas, and thus we 



