Antediluvian Zoology. 361 



mencing the study of botany, I have mentioned chiefly such 

 genera as are more or less known in this country : by far the 

 greater number, even of these, I have necessarily passed un- 

 noticed ; and many, but cursorily mentioned, might occupy 

 volumes. The two last-mentioned classes, in particular, con- 

 tain many genera of extraordinary interest, as the oak, fir, 

 willow, Mimosa, Acacia, i^icus, &c. 



It will not be necessary at present to touch upon the twenty- 

 fourth class, Cnjptogamia. The young student should be well 

 familiarised with the less difficult classes before he attempts 

 to study plants so imperfectly understood even by the best 

 botanists. At some future period I purpose to speak of this 

 class more at length than circumstances will admit of my doing 

 at this moment. Till then, reader, farewell. 



Art. XI. Illustrations of Antediluvian Zoology. 

 By R. C. Taylor, Esq., F.G.S. 



{Concluded from p. 287.) 



We resume our notices of Antediluvian Zoology, continuing 

 the division of 



ARTICULATED ANIMALS, 



Insects. — When we consider the enormous proportion of in- 

 sects to the rest of the animated beings in the present world, — 

 being, according to Baron Humboldt, no less than 44,000 out 

 of 51,700, — we might expect to discover more frequent traces 

 of these tribes in the fossil w^orld. Whether they did not pre- 

 vail in such numbers during the former period of the globe, 

 or whether, as is most probable, the extreme delicacy of their 

 structure was unfavourable to their preservation, we have only 

 the fact, that but scanty traces of their former existence, par- 

 ticularly in the elder beds, do now appear. 



The elytra of two or three species of Coleopterous Insects 

 are found in the Stonesfield calcareous slate. They are also 

 traced in the coal shale of the oolite series in Yorkshire, and 

 occasionally in older coal slates, and accompanying some other 

 vegetable deposits. They have been observed in the peaty 

 beds below the diluvium of the Norfolk coasts, and in a similar 

 bed on the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire coasts. In the sub- 

 marine forest of Mount's Bay, Dr. Boase recognised fragments 

 of insects, particularly the elytra and mandibles of the beetle 

 tribe, vi^hich still display the most beautiful shining colours 

 when first dug up. The wings of beetles were found in spUt- 

 ting the shale at Danby coal-pits in Yorkshire. 



Vol. III. — No. 14. b b 



