OF CREATION. 81 



substance of the bark turned into coal, that re- 

 mains; and the shape even of the trunk has been often 

 completely lost by crushing ; thus showing, indeed, 

 one peculiarity indicative of the great natural group 

 of trees to which the fossils belonged (the Monocoty- 

 ledons, or Endogens), but at the same time almost 

 precluding the possibility of comparison with the few 

 recent plants of the same tribe which appear to resem- 

 ble them in general form or structure. 



Still, in spite of the difficulties with which the 

 subject is surrounded, and in spite of the perplexing 

 confusion which might well alarm the botanist only 

 acquainted with the ordinary marks of distinction ex- 

 hibited by plants, a great deal has been done towards 

 determining the general nature of the flora of the 

 islands of the carboniferous period. It is remarkable, 

 that, in the first place, this flora is found to be, to a 

 great extent, uniform in all parts of the globe from 

 which carboniferous fossils have been obtained ; * 

 and, in the next place, that, if we wish to compare this 

 ancient flora with those which bear resemblance to it 

 at present, either in the general preponderance of par- 

 ticular plants, or in the total absence of others, we must 

 leave entirely the northern latitudes and the north- 

 ern hemisphere, and transport ourselves to the islands 

 in the neighbourhood of our antipodes, where New 

 Zealand and the southern part of Australia, together 

 with an innumerable multitude of small islands, form 

 almost the only land that now exists in the vast area 

 between the tropic of Capricorn and the South pole. 



* Namely, the whole of western, northern, and eastern Europe, North 

 America from Alabama to Melville Island, various districts in Asia, eastern 

 Australia, and Van Diemen's Land, and (probably) the Asiatic islands. 



