CHARACE^E. 93 



the heart with the conviction of the goodness of God towards 

 man, who often ungratefully omits to remember it, and 

 who therefore needs to be from time to time reminded of it. 

 The important part which the Characece take in the formation 

 of the earth's strata, geological investigation has made strik- 

 ingly and beautifully manifest, their fossil remains having 

 been found in great abundance in the freshwater strata 

 covering the chalk formation in the Isle of Wight, and in the 

 marls of Forfarshire, and other places their remains con- 

 sisting of portions of the stems, but principally of the nucules 

 which Lamark mistook for the shells of testaceous animals, 

 and acting under this impression named them Gyrogonites. 

 The fossil remains found in the calcareous marls of Forfar- 

 shire have been identified as belonging to Chara hispida, the 

 same species still existing in a living state in great profusion 

 in the lakes which still cover portions of these marls. 



The one grand purpose for which all cryptogamic vegetation 

 would appear to have been created, is the formation of soil 

 for the growth of productions more necessary to the wants of 

 man. First, the lichen, stunted and dry, but rich in salts, 

 appears on the face of the primordial rock. The rains of 

 Heaven descend upon it and moisten it, causing the dissolu- 

 tion of a portion of the rock itself: this it quickly imbibes 

 and retains in a more soluble form. It lives its allotted time, 

 then dies, and decomposes, liberating what it had derived from 

 the rock, together with the constituents of its own fabric. By 

 the continued and successive growth of the lichens, however, 

 a portion of the surface of the rock becomes hollowed out, 

 and a pool of water rests therein. The lichens now finding 

 this no longer a place fit for their developement, disappear. 

 Ere long, however, the sporules of a moss or a conferva light 

 upon this spot, and finding therein the circumstances requisite 

 for their growth, grow and flourish there for a period. Each 

 season they die also, and the quantity of their debris annually 

 increases, so that at last the pool is filled up : next in order 

 Equiseta, Carices, and Junci appear, and finally a soil is col- 

 lected, rich in the elements of fertility. The fungi assist much 

 in the formation of soil; but in a very different manner. 



