EVIDENCE OF THE FOSSIL FLORA. 195 



ture. We find in it an unfallen Adam, — not a half-deve- 

 loped savage.* 



The olive leaf which the dove brought to Noah established 

 at least three important facts, and indicated a few more. It 

 showed most conclusively that there was dry land, that there 

 were olive trees, and that the climate of the surrounding re- 

 gion, whatever change it might have undergone, was still fa- 

 vourable to the development of vegetable life. And, further, 

 it might be very safely inferred from it, that if olive trees 

 had survived, other trees and plants must have survived also ; 

 and that the dark muddy prominences round which the ebb- 

 ing currents' were fast sweeping to lower levels, would soon 

 present, as in antediluvian times, their coverings of cheerful 



* On a point of such importance I find it necessary to strengthen my 

 testimony by auxiliary evidence. The following is the judgment, on this 

 ancient petiif action, of Mr Nicol of Edinburgh, — confessedly one of our 

 highest living authorities in that division of fossil botany which takes 

 cognizance of the internal structure of lignites, and decides, from their 

 anatomy, their race and family : — 



" Edinburgh, 19th July 1845. 



** Dear Sir, — I have examined the structure of the fossil wood which 

 you found in the Old Red Sandstone at Cromarty, and have no hesita- 

 tion in stating, that the reticulated texture of the transverse sections, 

 though somewhat compressed, clearly indicates a coniferous origin ; but 

 as there is not the slightest trace of a disc to be seen in the longitudinal 

 sections parallel to the medullary rays, it is impossible to say whether it 

 belongs to the pine or araucarian division. I am, &c., 



"William Nicol." 



It will be seen that Mr Nicol failed to detect what I now deem the 

 discs of this conifer, — those stippled markings to which I have referred, 

 and which the engraver has indicated in no exaggerated style, in one of 

 the longitudinal sections (b) of the wood-cut given above. But even were 

 this portion of the evidence wholly wanting, we would be left in doubt, 

 in consequence, not whether the Old Red lignite formed part of a true 

 gymnosperraous tree, but whether that tree is now represented by the 

 pines of Europe and America, or by the araucarians of Chili and New 

 Zealand. Were I to risk an opinion in a department not particularly 

 vay province, it would be in favour of an araucarian relationship 



