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THE FAMMEllS' liEGlST 



Vol. VII. 



JULY 31, 1839. 



No. 7. 



D M U N D R U F F i N, EDITOR A N D^ p U O P R I K t Ofe . 



REMARKS ON THE V KG liTAB LlC KI.NGOOiVI. 



[Continued fioiii page 376.] 



Piaiiis:, Iroiii vvliat. has been saiil, aro oijianizcd 

 bodict:, and, Ike animals, capable of betreiting their 

 !d<e, and continuinir their species; cadi knig- 

 sioni Iiaving male ami female oroans oi" reproduc- 

 tion. The first and most important account we 

 have ol" ihe vegetable kingdom is recorded by 

 Mose?, in the 1st chapter of Genesis, 11 antl 12 

 verses. "And God said let the earth briiifr Ibrih 

 grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree 

 yielding fruit, alter his kind, whose seed is in itself, 

 upon the earth: and it was so. And the earih 

 brought forth grass, and llie herb yielding seed 

 after" his kind, and the free yielding I'nnt, ivhose 

 ■seed was in itself after his kind : and God saw that 

 it was good." I inler from the passages just read, i 

 that the seeds of plants were organized in minia- 

 ture, and when evolved required the vivifying influ- j 

 ence, or male dust, to render them Irulilul. Tlie | 

 inspn-ed writer does not say the principles or com- i 

 poncni parts, that form seeds, were given; he states' 

 positively and explicitly "whose seed is in itself." 

 I take the passage then as it is written, in its plain 

 htet ! sense, and will not trouble myself about 

 vain dieories of the schools, respecting tho fructi- 

 ficition of plants and the generation of animals. 

 If .Tinn may be permitted to raise the veU and ex- 

 plore the hidden laws of nature within, I too, iiave 

 written and published to tiie world, a speculative 

 Theory on "Generation," entitled perhaps to some 

 credit for its plausibility ; yet. ! must publicly ac- 

 knowledge that it stands on medical record, an ef- 

 llision of vanity and presumption. The seeds ol 

 tioth kingdoms were given by the all-wise creator, 

 and it never was intended that man, a worm born 

 and nourished in sin, should understand such di- 

 \iny mysteries. 



I'he most simple form of organic miller, v/as 

 first brought into being; (or it seems from Ihe Mo- 

 saic narrative, that the earth's surliiice was clothed 

 ■with vegetation belore any nieinion is made of the 

 animal kingdom; and Ihe most remarkable cir- 

 ciimstaitcc in the two verses read, is that God 

 gave to each class, order, genera, and species, its 

 hke in muiiature, viz., he gave to each plant, 

 herb, &,c., seeds, for the purpose of their repro- 

 duce ni and continuance. It would appear Ir-oni 

 this account, that primitive vegetation, or that kind 

 of vegetation spoken ol" by Moses, was not ol 

 sexual origin, but the immediate work of God. 

 Unless it be admitted that our planet, six thousand 

 years aofo, was the ruins of a Ibrmer world, hav- 

 ing seeds promiscuously deposited in its chaotic 

 mass ; and when renovaleii and reduced to order 

 the necessary agents acted on its surface and pro- 

 duced germination. Sotne philosophers of the 

 present day are inclined to this opinion, and think 

 It Consistent with the cosmogony of Moses : they 

 say there are many circumstances which fiivor 

 such an opinion. The ini'ant sciences ot fossil 

 botany, and Ibssil osteology, are bringing daily to 

 our view the remains of" fossil vegetable and ani- 

 VoL, VII-49 



ma! relics, imbedded in carbonilerous and chalk 

 formations, that come under no known order, ge- 

 nera or species, and are unknown to the botanists 

 and anatomists of the present day. Hence it isJ 

 concluded, that they had an existeiice long belbte 

 Ihe Mosaic history, and are fossil remains of ft 

 former woild ; or the remains of this world, before 

 it was last renovated and filled up for the reception 

 of the present organic race. The science ol" ge- 

 ology has already proved that the surlace of our 

 planet has not existed in its present Ibrm from 

 eternity; but has been revoluiionized, in passing- 

 through many series of creative operations, suc- 

 ceeding each other at long intervals of lime. 

 Primitrve and secondary formations contain fossil 

 oriianic remains, botli of the vegetable and ani- 

 mal kingiloms, diifering in structure I'rom organic 

 remains of the present day. The nncroscope 

 brings lo view vegetable and animal organic re- 

 mains, from the greatest depths ever reached by 

 the art of" man, or currents of water. From this 

 circumstance we must infer, that the earths sui;- 

 face has not only been broken up and dissolved, 

 but its whole mass agitated and convulsed by teni- 

 blc events. The Rev'd. NVilliam Auckland, D. D. 

 in his Bridgewaler Treatise on geology and minc- 

 ralorry, vol.' Isf, page 390, says, "the number of 

 Ibssil plants as yet "described is about 500; nearly 

 300 ol" ihese are from strata of the transition se- 

 ries, and almo.it entirely li'om the coal IbrmatiotJ. 

 About 100 are from strata o!" the secondary series, 

 and more than 100 from the tertiary series. Many 

 additional species have been collected from each 

 of these series, but are not yet named. As the 

 known sfiecies of vegetables are more than fifty 

 thousand, and the study ol" fb.-^sil botany is as yet 

 but in its infimcy, it is probable that a large amount 

 of fossil species lies hid in the bowels of the earth, 

 which the discoveries of each passing year will 

 be continually bringing to light." In giving an 

 account of the coafmines in Bohenfia he says, 

 "the most elaborate imitations of livi;i:.r foliage 

 upon the painted ceilings of Italian palaces, bear 

 no comparison with the beautious profusion of ex-_ 

 tinct vegetable forms with which the galleries of 

 these instructive coal mines are over-hung. The 

 roof is covered as with a canopy of gorgeous ta- 

 pestry, enriched with festoons of most graceful (b- 

 hage, flung in wild irregular profusion over every 

 part of its surf"ace. The eli'ect is heightened by 

 the contrast of the coal black color of these vege- 

 tables with the light ground work of the lock to 

 which I hey are attached. The spectator feeL-^ 

 himself transported as by enchantment into the 

 forests of another world ;'he beholds trees of Ibinis 

 and characters now unknown upon the surdice of 

 the earth, presented to his senses almost in the 

 beauty and vigor of" their primeval lile ; their scaly 

 stems and bending branches, with their delicate 

 apparatus of Ibliage are all spread Ibrth before 

 him ; little impaired by the lapse of countless 

 ages, and bearing flillhful records of extinct sys- 

 tems of vegetation, which began and terminated 

 in limes nl'^nhicli these relics are the inlallibla 

 IiiEtorian«." 



