Vegetation of the First Period of an Ancient World. 1 1 7 



\y in localities of this kind. The Equisitum (horsetail,) the Os mun- 

 da regalis (royal moonwest,) and the Lycopodium (club moss,) are 

 all indigenous in our peat soils. Again, we can scarcely doubt, that 

 at this remote epoch, our atmosphere had a very different composition 

 from what it now has, and that its difference exerted a powerful influ- 

 ence upon the formation of those bodies of vegetable combustion. 



The comparison of the successive development of vegetables and 

 animals, is not one of the least remarkable parts of the the study of 

 these fossil organized bodies. This is beautifully expressed by Mr. 

 Adolph. Brongniart. He displays by philosophic reasoning the ef- 

 fects produced by a supposed cause. He states with great perspicu- 

 ity, why land animals did not exist at one period, why cold-blooded 

 animals became more numerous at another period ; and, lastly, he 

 gives cogent reasons for the appearance of animals of a more com- 

 plicated structure, the mammiferae and birds in the fourth period. 



Mr. A. Brongniart's reasonings upon this subject are so well epito- 

 mised by Professor Jameson in the Philosophical Journal for March, 

 1829, that I should think it improper at present to enter more minute 

 details. 



The study of this occult science truly opens a hidden field of ani- 

 mated beings and things, whose early call into existence proves the 

 omnipotence of the design. It brings into view a world little looked 

 into or thought of, owing to the obscurity with which it was surround- 

 ed. It develops the early, the sublime, the successive works of the 

 great Creator, which before were all supposed to be drowned and 

 scattered about by the mighty burstings of a universal deluge. In other 

 words the contemplation of these stupendous operations is the true 

 philosophy of the science of geology. 



If, therefore, the attention lately paid to the study of fossil con- 

 chology has been so highly instrumental in clearing up the many 

 doubts respecting the different sedimentary formations : If the works 

 of Baron Cuvier and others, founded on the early observations of 

 Werner, have afforded us so many interesting proofs of successive 

 creations, from those of the early inhabitants of the deep, up to the 

 more complicated structure of the quadruped ; may we not expect 

 equal pleasure and instruction from an application to the study of these 

 ancient vegetable remains,' which when once properly examined, will 

 facihtate our knowledge of the forms, characters, and qualities peculiar 

 to each epoch, and of the degree of temperature and humidity 

 which must have existed during each successive period. 



Edinburgh, 6th December, 1829. 



