238 LEAVES FROM THE BOOK OF NATURE. 



the past became the masters of the present. These flow- 

 erless firstlings of creation were made to rule and con- 

 trol, at the bidding of the children of this day, wind and 

 water, space and time. The light of earliest ages, safely- 

 buried in the bosom of our mother earth, was called to 

 life once more, and made to shine bright and brilliant 

 over land and sea. 



In the lofty mountains of Peru, man found the black, 

 shining mummies ; far from under the ocean's bed, he 

 brought to light the same mysterious plants, the same 

 gigantic fern-trees. A new book was opened to him; the 

 coal-fields of the earth became chronicles of ages unknown 

 to history or tradition. Leaf after leaf was unfolded, and 

 not a letter was found to be effaced. Whatever had had 

 life upon land or in water, was carefully preserved, in 

 image or substance, in the long hidden treasury. Not a 

 plant was missing, not a leaf was wanting to rebuild the 

 wondrous world of earliest ages. The dark night of deep 

 mines unfolded an incredible richness and splendor of ve- 

 getable forms. As if with gorgeous tapestry, their walls 

 and ceiling were found covered with graceful garlands of 

 unknown creepers. The rich tracery of delicate leaves and 

 tendrils is marked in deep black on the lighter surface 

 of the surrounding rock. Lofty trees stand, as they stood 

 countless ages ago, in all the luxury of their massive 

 trunks, their wide spreading branches and beautiful foliage. 

 Fossil trunks have been found, whose year-rings told of 

 an age of more than eight centuries ! Palms and tropical 

 trees alternate with the pines and poplars of northern 



