266 Notice on Vegetable Fossils. 
ders of both classes may, and we presume will peruse the 
whole with pleasure and advantage. It is a valuable addi- 
tion to our stock of foreign travels and does credit to its 
author. 
Art. V.—Notice on Vegetable Fossils, which traverse the 
Layers of coal formations ; by ALEXANDER Broncniart, 
Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Chief Engi- 
neer of the Royal Corps of Miners, &c. 
Extracted from the ‘ Annales des Mines, for 1821.’’—Translated by 
Isaac Doolittle. 
Tue presence of organized remains in the midst of the 
solid strata of the crust ofthe globe, and which sometimes 
are found at great depths, is one of the circumstances most 
worthy of exciting the curiosity, and fixing the attention of 
observers. 
These remains of former worlds, often very numerous 
and but slightly altered in their form and structure, although 
entirely changed in their nature, seem to have been so well 
preserved, solely in order to afford us the only documents 
which we can ever hope to possess respecting the Natural 
History of these various periods: these ancient remains are 
like scattered sentences of that history. The more we can 
collect of them, the stronger will be the hope that we shall 
one day re-establish it, if not perfectly, at least in its most 
essential points. The fact which I am about to mention is 
not new, though instances of its having been observed are 
still rare. Itis, moreover,.so remarkable, so important to 
the theory of one of the formations of the earth, the most 
interesting in every point of view, that too many instances 
cannot be noticed. 
That which is the subject of this notice is the most com- 
plete, the most clear, and the easiest of observation ; it will, 
therefore, be one of the most authentic. In this publication 
I claim no other merit than that of having described and 
designed, and by that means, inscribed on the registers of 
Science, a fact which the Engineers of minesof the Depart- 
ment of of the Loire, (Messrs. Beaunier & Gallois,) pointed 
out to my notice. 
