OBJECTIONS OF COUNT STEKNBEBG. 175 



water without being totally decomposed ; the principal 

 part of those which remained belonged to the coniferce and 

 cycadece, the families, in fact, which we find best preserved 

 in a fossil state. Secondly, the monocotyledons survived to 

 a considerable extent, whence it was concluded that they are 

 more capable of resisting the action of water, in particular, 

 palms and scitamineous plants, families which are likewise 

 found fossil. Grasses and sedges had perished ; whence it 

 was inferred that we have no right to assume that the earth 

 was not originally clothed with these, because we no longer 

 find their remains. Thirdly, fungi and mosses, and all the 

 lowest forms of vegetation had disappeared ; even equisetum 

 had left no traces behind ; ferns appeared to have the power 

 of resisting water if gathered in a green state, not one of 

 them having disappeared during the experiment ; but im- 

 mersion had caused their organs of fructification to rot 

 away; a result which we constantly observe in the fossil 

 specimens. 



Hence, it is assumed, as a general result, that the numeri- 

 cal proportion of different families of plants, found in a fossil 

 state, throws but little light upon the ancient climate of the 

 earth ; but depends in some measure upon the power which 

 certain families possess, by virtue of their organisation, of 

 resisting the action of the water in which they floated, pre- 

 viously to their being finally embedded in the rocks in which 

 they are found. 



In addition to these statements, it may be remarked, that 

 as the circumstances under which the plants of the coal were 

 entombed, were analogous to those which attended the sub- 

 mergence of the flora of the tertiary period, w T e should expect 

 to find that, if dicotyledonous plants had existed in any con- 

 siderable numbers during the carboniferous epoch, they would 

 have left their impression on the shales, in the same manner 

 as the tertiary plants have left their imprints on the deposits 

 of that period. 



On the other hand, if we consider the sigillarice to belong 

 to the dicotyledonous class, we shall have a much larger nu- 

 merical proportion of plants of this order than was supposed 

 to have existed at this epoch. 



OBJECTIONS or COUNT STEKNBERG. The whole subject, 

 however, is replete with diificulties, which the present sta-te 



