FOSSILS OF CARBONIFEROUS FORMATION. 59 



distinct line of development, which had inferior 

 forms in its first stages, also of too slight a struc- 

 ture to be preserved. 



Following this reviewer into his discussion of 

 tlie Carboniferous System, we find him commen- 

 cing with a taunt, that there are now traces of 

 laud vegetation in earlier formations. This is, 

 iu reality, a point of no importance for the de- 

 velopment theory. The question is, with what 

 kind of plants did land vegetation begin .'' The 

 anxiety of the reviewer to force a verdict in his 

 favour is here strongly shown. " What," he says, 

 ■ are these first fruits of nature's vegetable germs ? 

 .lie they rude, ill-fasliioned forms ? Far otherwise. 

 We find among them palms and tree-ferns, &c." 

 In this passage, which substantially conveys the 

 same information as my book, there is an evident 

 design of inducing the belief, that the first land 

 vegetation was of a high character. The rigid 

 truth is, that though this was a " grand" in the 

 sense of a luxuriant vegetation, it was composed, 

 as far as positive evidence goes, almost wholly of 

 plants which stand low in the scale of organiza- 

 tion. The ascertained dicotyledons (plants ha\ing 

 double-lobed seeds and an exterior growth) are 

 extremely rare. On this point, I cannot do better 



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