Ancient Vegetation of the Earth. 327 



all at once, during the tertiary period, with preponderating influ- 

 ence. It then, as at the present day, held dominion over other 

 classes of the vegetable kingdom, both in reference to the number 

 and variety of the species, as well as the magnitude of the indi- 

 viduals. Thus the assemblage of vegetables which inhabited 

 our climates during the deposition of the tertiary formation, which 

 enveloped their ruins in its sedimentary layers, were intimately 

 allied to the mass of our present vegetation, and more particularly 

 to the flora of the temperate regions of Europe and America. 

 The soil of these countries was covered then, as at present, with 

 Pines, Firs, Culms, Poplars, Birches, Elms, Walnuts, Maples, and 

 other trees almost identical with those which still flourish in our 

 climates. 



And yet, not only do we not recognize any indications of those 

 singular vegetables which characterized the primitive forests of 

 the coal period, but we rarely encounter, there, even fragments 

 of plants analogous to those which now vegetate between the 

 tropicks. 



We do not, however, necessarily infer that the same vegetable 

 forms have been perpetuated from this epoch, still very ancient, 

 (since it preceded the existence of man,) to the present day. No : 

 very sensible diflerences almost always distinguish these inhabit- 

 ants of our globe, very recent, geologically, but exceedingly an- 

 cient, chronologically, from our cotemporaneous vegetables to 

 which they seem most nearly allied ; and the existence in these 

 same earths, in the north of France, of Palms, very different from 

 those which still vegetate upon the borders of the Mediterranean, 

 and of a small number of other plants which appertain to families 

 now limited to the more torrid regions, seem to indicate that at 

 this epoch central Europe enjoyed a temperature more elevated 

 than at present ; which, besides, accords very well with what we 

 may deduce from the presence, in the same formations, and the 

 same countries, of Elephants, Rhinoceroses and Hippopotami, ani- 

 mals which are now rarely found to range beyond the tropicks. 



What an astonishing contrast between the aspect of nature du- 

 ring modern geological periods, and that which she offered when 

 the primitive vegetation covered the sitrface of the globe ! 



Indeed, at the periods in question of the geological history of 

 the world, the earth had already assumed, in great part, at least, 

 the form which it presents at the present day ; continents very 



