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most bituminous coal ; he has ascertained 

 that if any of the three varieties of coal 

 found near Newcastle be cut into very 

 thin slices and submitted to the micro- 

 scope, more or less of vegetable structure 

 can be recognised. He says, " each of 

 these three kinds of coal, besides the fine 

 distinct reticulation of the original vege- 

 table texture, exhibits other cells, which 

 are filled with a light wine-yellow-coloured 

 matter, apparently of a bituminous nature, 

 and which is so volatile as to be entirely 

 expelled by heat, before any change is 

 effected in the other constituents of the 

 coal." The plants of the carboniferous 

 group are by no means confined to the 

 simplest forms of vegetation, as to crypto- 

 gamic plants ; but, on the contrary, be- 

 long to all the leading divisions of the 

 vegetable kingdom ; some of the more 

 fully developed forms, both of the dicoty- 

 ledonous and monocotyledonous class, ha- 

 ving been already discovered, in the first 

 three or four hundred species brought to 

 light. If violence had attended the trans- 

 port of the plants now converted into 

 coal, or discovered fossil in the associated 

 beds, the appearance of those in the latter 

 would not be as we now find them : in- 

 stead of appearing as if spread out by the 

 botanist for examination, we should have 

 had them crushed and disfigured. More- 

 over, tranquillity seems requisite to ex- 

 plain the condition of those vertical, or 

 nearly vertical , stems of plants discovered 

 in the coal measures of different situations, 

 where they have been gradually enveloped 

 by different beds of sandstone or shale 

 through which they appear to pierce. The 

 alternations of limestones containing ma- 

 rine remains, and of sandstones, shales, 

 and coal-beds, with no trace of a marine 

 animal in them, are exceedingly remark- 

 able, and seem difficult of explanation, 

 without calling in the aid of oscillations 

 of the solid surface of the earth, by which 

 very gradual risings and depressions are 

 effected. 



The study of the more ancient coal 

 deposits has yielded the most extraordi- 

 nary evidence of an extremely hot climate ; 

 for it appears from the fossils of that pe- 

 riod that the flora consisted almost exclu- 

 sively of large vascular cryptogamic plants. 

 M. Ad. Brongniart states that there ex- 

 isted at that epoch equiseta upwards of 

 ten feet high, and from five to six inches 

 in diameter ; tree-ferns, or plants allied 

 to them, of from forty to fifty feet in 

 height, and arborescent lycopodiacese, of 

 from sixty to seventy feet high, exceeding 

 in their development those now found in 

 the hottest parts of the globe. The New- 

 castle coal-field is supplying rich mate- 

 rials to the fossil flora of Great Britain. 



The finest example of distinctly preserved 

 vegetable remains is that witnessed in the 

 coal-mines of Bohemia. " The most ela- 

 borate imitations," says Prof. Buckland, 

 " of living foliage upon the painted ceil- 

 ings of Italian palaces, bear no comparison 

 with the beauteous profusion of extinct 

 vegetable forms, with which the galleries 

 of these instructive coal-mines are over- 

 hung. The roof is covered as with a ca- 

 nopy of gorgeous tapestry, enriched with 

 festoons of most graceful foliage, flung in 

 wild, irregular profusion over every por- 

 tion of its surface. The spectator feels 

 himself transported, as if by enchantment, 

 into the forests of another world ; he be- 

 holds trees, of forms and characters now 

 unknown upon the surface of the earth, 

 presented to his senses almost in the 

 beauty and vigour of their primeval life ; 

 their scaly stems, and bending branches, 

 with their delicate apparatus of foliage, 

 are all spread forth before him ; little 

 impaired by the lapse of countless 

 ages, and bearing faithful records of ex- 

 tinct systems of vegetation, which began 

 and terminated in times of which these 

 relics are the infallible historians." I can 

 hardly conclude this article better, than 

 by again drawing on the composition of 

 the above quoted elegant and eloquent 

 author, in transferring to my page from 

 his delightful work on Geology and Mi- 

 neralogy the following beautiful passage. 

 " The important uses of coal and iron in 

 administering to the supply of our daily 

 wants, give to every individual amongst 

 us, in almost every moment of our lives, 

 a personal concern in the geological events 

 of these very distant eras. We are all 

 brought into immediate connexion with 

 the vegetation that filothed the ancient 

 earth, before one-half of its actual surface 

 had yet been formed. The trees of the 

 primeval forests have not, like modern 

 trees, undergone decay, yielding back their 

 elements to the soil and atmosphere by 

 which they had been nourished ; but 

 treasured up in subterranean storehouses, 

 have been transformed into enduring beds 

 of coal, which in these later ages have be- 

 come to man the sources of heat, and Light, 

 and wealth. My fire now burns with fuel, 

 and my lamp is shining with the light of 

 gas, derived from coal which has been 

 buried for countless ages in the deep and 

 dark recesses of the earth. We prepare 

 our food, and maintain our forges and 

 furnaces, and the power of our steam-en- 

 gines, with the remains of plants of ancient 

 forms and extinct species, which were 

 swept from the earth ere the formation of 

 the transition series was completed. Thus, 

 from the wreck of forests that waved upon 

 the surface of the primeval lands, and 



