76 Cornus jlorida. — Flint Ridge. 



wear a most enchanting appearance. The soil is so very congenial 

 to the growth of the Cornus florida, or dog wood, that these trees ve- 

 getate in countless numbers, and being now in full bloom, their clear 

 white petals, are finely contrasted with the deep green of the forest, 

 and no cultivated orchard of fruit tregs, ever displayed such an array 

 of splendor and beauty. 



Fossil arborescent Ferns. — In the afternoon, I visited a deposit of 

 coarse sandstone, three miles west of Zanesville, which is hterally 

 filled with the broken trunks and branches of various species of the 

 arborescent fern and other fossil plants of the antediluvian period. 

 I brought away several specimens, and amongst them is one species 

 which still retains portions of the spines or setse, that grew in the 

 center of the scales which covered the surface and formed the corti- 

 cal portion of these singular trees, so admirably fitted to the purpose 

 for which they were apparently created, viz. that of furnishing an 

 inexhaustible supply of fuel for man, when the present forests are 

 removed to make room for the immense tillage that will, in time, be 

 needed for the support of the teeming millions, destined to people 

 the earth, when wars shall cease and diseases shall be greatly dimin- 

 ished^ if not entirely banished. Buried deep under superincumbent 

 strata, these ancient forests lie bituminized and changed to an imper- 

 ishable material, in the form of" Stone coal !" How glorious and how 

 wonderful the providence of the Creator, in the material, as well as 

 in the moral world. The whole region about Zanesville, is full of 

 interesting relics of by-gone ages ; descriptions of many of which 

 are given in a late number of this Journal. 



May 21, "Flint Ridge." — I visited "Flint ridge," or the great 

 siliceous deposit, in company with my friend N. This interesting 

 formation has been frequently noticed in former publications. Be- 

 ing desirous of obtaining a more correct knowledge of its relation to 

 the other rock strata, with which it is associated, I visited the nearest 

 locality to Zanesville, distant about twelve miles. The deposit is 

 here found, as well as in other places, near the tops of the hills, 

 sometimes entirely on the surface, covering large tracts with its bro- 

 ken fragments ; at others, lying at considerable depths beneath a rich 

 argillaceous soil and a luxuriant growth of forest trees. The spot 

 chosen for the present examination lies in Hopewell township, Mus- 

 kingum county, near the line which divides it from Licking county, 

 on the extreme head of the Brushy fork of Licking creek ; in the 

 bed of a deep ravine. The siliceous rock is here hollowed out, by 



