FLORA. 209 



And there follow some important remarks bearing upon 

 the subject of evolution and development, after which 

 are discussed the coal formations. 



The beds of coal are often found underlaid and overlaid 

 and intermixed with layers of schists, rocky matter 

 capable of being split into thin divisions like slates, and 

 so named from the Latin scldstus. The accepted opinion 

 is that coals are the remains of accumulated masses of 

 woody matter, leaves, twigs, stems, and trunks of herba- 

 ceous and arborescent vegetables, in depressions which 

 were alternately dry or nearly dry, and filled with water 

 from which was deposited the schisty matter, the whole 

 being subsequently submerged for ages by the sea, from 

 which, in the course of these protracted ages, deposits far 

 exceeding them in thickness were superimposed upon 

 them, while subsequently they were under the pressure of 

 these subjected to intense heat, whereby was effected a 

 partial decomposition of them which resulted in the 

 formation of the coal. 



In view of this being a generally accepted opinion, 

 Count Saporta goes on to say : 



' The most ancient land plants of which we have any 

 knowledge have left their imprint on the schists which 

 generally accompany the beds of coal. It does not follow, 

 however, that beyond the submerged basins, or peat bogs, 

 which supply a place for the deposit of the schists or of 

 leafy sandstone girts rich in vegetable imprints, the land 

 elevated above the level of the sea, that is to say, the 

 crystalline masses which represented the continents of the 

 period, were devoid of vegetables. Far from that being 

 the case, it is on the contrary shown by silicified seeds 

 embedded in the gaps of the carboniferous age, that there 

 existed then a forest vegetation, composed especially of 

 prototypical conifers and different from that of which the 

 coal beds have preserved the remains. The former 

 occupied the interior of the land and the sloping portions 

 of the soil which had been for a long time emerged ; the 



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