GENERAL HISTORY OF FOSSIL VEGETABLES. 339 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



Proofs of Design in the Structure of Fossil Vegetables. 

 SECTION I. 



GENERAL HISTORY OF FOSSIL VEGETABLES. 



The history of Fossil Vegetables has a twofold claim 

 upon our consideration, in relation to the object of our pre- 

 sent inquiry. The first regards the influence exerted on the 

 actual condition of Mankind, by the fossil carbonaceous re- 

 mains of Plants, which clothed the former surface of the 

 Earth, and has been briefly considered in a former chapter; 

 (Chap. VII. P. 57.) the second directs our attention to the 

 history and structure of the ancient members of the vegeta- 

 ble kingdom. 



It appears that nearly at the same points in the progress 

 of stratification, where the most striking changes take place 

 in the remains of Animal life, there are found also concur- 

 rent changes in the character of fossil Vegetables. 



A large and new field of investigation is thus laid open to 

 our inquiry, wherein we may compare the laws which regu- 

 lated the varying systems of vegetation, on the earlier sur- 

 faces of our earth, with those which actually prevail. 

 Should it result from this inquiry, that the families which 

 make up our fossil Flora were formed on principles, either 

 identical with those that regulate the development of ex- 

 isting plants, or so closely allied to them, as to form con- 

 nected parts of one and the same great system of laws, for 

 the universal regulation of organic life, we shall add another 

 link to the chain of arguments which we extract from the 

 interior of the Earth, in proof of the Unity of the Intelli- 



