184 Brongniart, Sur les Vegeiaux Fossils. 



coides, Poacites, Phyllites, and the orders Carpolithes aud 

 Antholithes, beside nine species referable to existing Gen- 

 era. The Palnnacites are found only in this formation. 



2. The formations of middle and inferior sediment, inclu- 

 ding chalk, Jura limestone, oolite, alpine limestone, some 

 lignites, and the bituminous schists of Mansfeld, contain 

 specimens of only three Genera, Exogenites, Fucoides, and 

 Lycopodites. 



3. The formations of coal, anthracite and copper lignite, 

 contain specimens of Calamites, Syringodendron, Sigillaria^ 

 Clathraria, Sagenaria, Stigmaria, Filicites, Sphenophyl- 

 lites, Asterophyllites, and the true Lycopodites, which are 

 all unknown in the more recent formations. The Filicites 

 are far the most abundant ; they almost give a character 

 to the coal formations. Poacites are also found in these 

 formations, more abundantly than in any other. The cop- 

 per lignites contain only Calamites and Stigmarias similar to 

 those in the coal formations. The anthracite formations 

 only Calamites, Filicites, Asterophyllites, Sphenophyllites, 

 and Poacites. The coal formations contain all the Genera 

 in this division. 



If we compare the fossil with the living vegetable 

 kingdom, we shall find that the Acotyledons, (Mosses, 

 Fuci, Lichens, &;c.) which now form an eighth part of veg- 

 etables, did not exist in the earliest periods, but are 

 found in the second and the most recent. The Cryptoga- 

 mic Monocotyledons, (Ferns and their allies,) now forming 

 hardly the thirtieth part, comprised nine tenths in the first 

 periods, and are scarcely, if at all, present in the more re- 

 cent. The Phanei'ogamic Monocotyledons, now compris- 

 ing the sixth part nearly, included scarcely the thirtieth 

 part in the earliest periods, viz. the Poacites,while the great 

 family of Palms appeared only in the most recent periods. 

 The Dicotyledons now including almost three quarters of 

 vegetation, constituted only one twentieth in the earliest 

 periods, and became very abundant in the form of exoge- 

 nites and phyllites in the more recent. 



The author thinks the coal beds were formed by plants, 

 growing on the spot, and not brought from another place and 

 deposited there; while the more recent formations are partly 

 formed of plants growing on the spot, as Fucoidesin marine 

 ft)rmations5 and Charas, Nympheasand Poacites, in fresh wa- 



