8 PETRIFACTIONS AND THEIR TEACHINGS. CHAP. I. 



tents of others are but provisionally placed. This circum- 

 stance has rendered it necessary to introduce' an arbitrary 

 notation in the subjoined plans of the rooms which I have 

 drawn up for the present work. 



The classification of the Organic Remains is botanical, and 

 zoological j but in consequence of the want of space, and 

 the continual additions which have been made of late years 

 to various departments, the arrangement is necessarily some- 

 what irregular. 



The Fossil Vegetables are placed in Room I, and occupy 

 the wall-cases: the collection commences with the Crypto- 

 gamia, which are deposited in the cases on the right 

 hand of the entrance, and terminates with the Conifera, 

 of which there are examples of large petrified stems in the 

 window-recesses. The wall-surface over the upright cases is 

 for the most part vacant and bare ; and the visitor who has 

 previously strolled through the Egyptian Saloon and Gallery, 

 the walls of which are adorned with paintings illustrative of 

 the archaeological treasures they contain, will doubtless feel 

 surprise and regret that a suite of rooms devoted to objects 

 of such surpassing interest, and which especially require pic- 

 torial illustrations to render them intelligible to the unin- 

 structed observer, and that present a variety of subjects 

 suitable for such decorations, should be suffered to retain 

 their present uninviting and cheerless aspect. If on the 

 walls over the cases in which the coal-plants are placed there 

 were figures of the trees which nourished during the carbo- 

 niferous epoch, as for example, the Lepidodendra and Sigil- 

 larise, with their foliage, and fruits, and roots; and above 

 others, representations of Arborescent Ferns, Palms, Conifers, 

 Cycadese, <fec., how greatly would the pleasure and instruction 

 of a visit to this Gallery of " Organic Remains of a former 

 World," be enhanced ! The same observation applies to the 

 other apartments, in each of which there are unoccupied 

 spaces, that at a small cost might be rendered pleasing to 

 the eye, and instructive to the mind, if restored figures of 

 the animals whose remains are in the cabinets, or sections 

 and sketches of the strata and localities whence they were 

 obtained, were painted or suspended on the walls. 1 



1 This method was adopted in the Author's Museum at Brighton, and 

 proved highly attractive and useful 



