30& 



THE WORM*. 



gone a liquefaction which has destroyed its organization, but IB 

 the slaty coals and the shales, traces of cellular tissue are obser- 

 ved, and the peculiar spiral vessels and dotted cells, indicating 

 the coniferous or cone-bearing wood. We must therefore con- 

 clude that these beds of coal, although mineralized, and almost 

 crystaline in their appearance, are entirely of vegetable origin. 

 Among the fossils of the coal there are a great variety of ferns, and 

 some of them of very elegant forms. We here give figures of 

 two species, fig. 1, is from the coal shales of Ohio, called the 



2 1 



Pecopteris Sillimanii^ or Silliman's embroidered fern; and fig. 2 

 the Sphenopt&ris, or wedge-leafed fern; from the coal shales 

 Silesia. Besides the fern tribe, which in the ancient world seems 

 to have been ranch more largely developed than at present, wo 

 find gigantic specimens of the Calamite, similar in all respects 

 to the common reed growing abundantly in our marshes and 

 called Equisclum, or marestail. 



Notwithstanding the extensive beds of coal found everywhere 

 over the globe, no trace or fragment of quadruped, bird or rep- 

 tile, has been discovered. The immense forests of aborescent 

 or tree ferns, and coniferous trees with their rich and luxuriant 

 vegetation, were desolate and silent; no reptile crawled over th 

 damp ground, no bird made a nest among the green foliage, no 

 sound broke the primeval silence, which for ages shrouded the- 

 the thick forests; silently theysank down b&neath the waters, aiuS 



