PALiEOPETROLOGY. 



86 



raised above the level of the sea, Christopher 

 Columbus in the course of his first voyage of 

 discovery observed coniferous trees and palms 

 associated in their growthC"'). This gifted 

 and all-observing man speaks of the circum- 

 stance in his journal as a singularity ; and his 

 friend Anghiera, secretary to Ferdinand the 

 Catholic, says, with evident astonishment that 

 " in the newly discovered country thaiflknd 

 palmeta and pineta growing togethe'^^^V is 

 of the greatest interest in a geoIogica^JIJProf 

 view to contrast the present distribution of 

 plants upon the surface of the earth with that 

 which the floras of the former world unfold to 

 us. The temperate zone of the southern hem- 

 isphere, abounding in water and in islands, and 

 in which tropical forms of vegetation mingle so 

 strangely with the forms that belong to colder 

 regions of the earth, presents us, according to 

 Darwin's beautiful, animated description, witH 

 the most instructive examples for both the old 

 and the new, the past and the present geogra- 

 phy of pJants(^"*'). The primeval is in the 

 strictest sense of the word a portion of the his- 

 tory of phytology. 



The Cycadeae, which, to judge by the num- 

 ber of species, played a much more important 

 part in the world that has passed away than in 

 that which now exists, accompany the allied 

 Coniferae from the epoch of the coal formation 

 upwards. They are almost entirely wanting 

 in the period of the variegated sandstone, in 

 which Coniferae of singular formation (Voltzia, 

 Haidingera, Albertia) have grown luxuriantly ; 

 the Cycadeae, however, attain their maximum 

 in the Keuper strata and the lias, where about 

 twenty different forms make their appearance. 

 In the chalk the prevailing forms are those of 

 marine and fresh-water plants (Fuci and Na- 

 jades). The cycadean forests of the Jura for- 

 mation have by this time been long exhausted, 

 and even in the older tertiary formations they 

 remain deep behind the cone-bearing tribes and 

 palms(3<'i). 



The lignitic or brown-coal strata, which are 

 present in every one of the divisions of the 

 tertiary period, amongst the earliest forms of 

 cryptogamic land plants, exhibit a few palms, 

 many conifers with distinct annual rings, and 

 frondiferous trees, of more or less decided trop- 

 ical character. In the middle tertiary period 

 we observe the complete recurrence of the 

 palms and cycadeans, and in the last members 

 of this epoch, at length, strong resemblances 

 to our present flora. We come suddenly upon 

 our pines and firs, our cupuliferous tribes, our 

 planes, and our poplars. The dicotyledonous 

 stems of the lignite are frequently distinguish- 

 ed by gigantic thic"kness and vast age. A trunk 

 was found near Bonn, in which Noggerath 

 counted 792 annual rings. In the peat-moss 

 of the Somme, at Yseux, not far from Abbe- 

 ville, in the north of France, oaks have been 

 found that are 14 feet in diameter, a size which, 

 in the old hemisphere, is very remarkable be- 

 yond the tropicsC^o!'). Goeppert's excellent re- 

 searches, which it is hoped will soon appear 

 illustrated with plates, inform us, " that all the 

 Baltic amber is derived from a coniferous tree, 

 which, as proclaimed by the extant remains of 

 the wood and bark, were obviously of different 

 ages, came nearest to our white and red pine 



timber, but still constituted a particular species. 

 The amber-tree of the former world (Pinites 

 succifer) had a richness in resin with which 

 none of the coniferous tribes of the present 

 world will bear comparison, inasmuch as great 

 masses of amber are contained not only within 

 and upon the bark, but also between the rings 

 of the wood and in the direction of the medul- 

 lary rays, which, as well as the cells, are seen 

 under the microscope to be filled with ambre- 

 ous resin of a whiter or yellower colour in dif- 

 ferent places. Amongst the vegetable matters 

 inclosed in amber we find both male and female 

 flowers of indigenous, acicular-leaved, and cu- 

 puliferous trees ; but distinct fragments of Thu- 

 ja, Cupressus, Ephedera, and Castania vesca, 

 mingled with others of Junipers and Firs, indi- 

 cate a vegetation which is diflferent from that 

 of the present coasts and plains of the Baltic 

 Sea." 



In the geological portion of our Representa- 

 tion of Nature, we have now gone over the whole 

 series of formations, from the oldest eruptive 

 rocks, and the oldest sedimentary strata, to the 

 newest alluvium, upon which lie the great er- 

 ratic blocks, the causes or means of whose dis- 

 tribution has long been matter of discussion, 

 but which for my own part I am less disposed 

 to ascribe to icebergs, than to the eruption and 

 tumultuous descent of great masses of pent-up 

 water suddenly let loose by the upheaval of 

 mountain chains(2"3) 'pj^e oldest members of 

 the transition formation with which we are ac- 

 quainted, are the schists and greywacke, which 

 inclose some few remains of seaweed from the 

 Silurian, formerly the Cambrian Sea. Upon 

 what did these oldest rocks, as they are called, 

 repose, if gneiss and mica-slate are to be re- 

 garded but as metamorphosed sedimentary 

 strata 1 Shall we venture a conjecture in re- 

 gard to that which cannot be the object of ac- 

 tual geological observation 1 According to an 

 ancient Indian Myth, it is an elephant that sup- 

 ports the earth ; and the elephant himself, that 

 he may not sink, is borne by a gigantic tortoise. 

 Whereon the tortoise stands, it is not allowed 

 to the believing Brahmin to inquire. We make 

 bold to attempt a problem of the sort, although 

 prepared for variety of blame in its solution. 

 On the first formation of the planets, as we 

 have made it probable in the astronomical por- 

 tion of our Picture, vaporous rings circulating 

 about the sun became aggregated into spheres, 

 and gradually consolidated from without in- 

 wards. What we call the older Silurian strata 

 are only the upper portions of the solid crust 

 of the earth. The eruptive rocks which we see 

 breaking through, pushing aside, and heaving 

 up these, arise from depths that are inaccessi- 

 ble to us ; they exist, consequently, under the 

 Silurian strata, composed of the same associa- 

 tion of minerals which are familiar to us under 

 the name of granite, augite, and quartz-por- 

 phyry, at the points where, by breaking through, 

 they become visible. Resting on analogies, we 

 may safely assume that that which at one and 

 the same time fills extensive fissures in the 

 manner of veins, and bursts through the sedi- 

 mentary strata, can only be an offset from an 

 inferior bed. The active volcanoes of the pres- 

 ent day carry on their processes at the greatest 



