SI6- M. Brongniart on the fossil, Sfc. 



great catastrophe, large trees with their roots were carried 

 away by this debacle, and deposited vertically in the plain 

 of Martigny. This observation leads to the conclusion that 

 the vertical position of a stem is not a proof that it has lived 

 on the spot where it is now thus found; but it appears to us 

 a circumstance tliat ought to be rare, and which can only 

 offer some isolated facts : the examples of vertical stems are 

 On the contrary very numerous. In those mentioned by M. 

 Noggerath and us, it is not only one large trunk that has 

 been observed, but many ; and in that of the Treuil mine, 

 ■which forms the principal subject of this notice, there is 

 nearly a forest of slender stems, which have preserved their 

 parallelism among themselves. Moreover the nature of the 

 ground to which the vegetables still held by their roots 

 ought to be different, or at least very distinct from that of 

 the rock enveloping them. It is perhaps more difficult td 

 conceive that this sandy rock could envelope them after 

 their removal without deranging them, than that it has been 

 deposited between them in the place where they grew, and 

 where they were very firmly rooted. Even supposing that 

 these vegetables could have been transplanted without losing 

 their vertical position, it cannot be admitted that they came 

 from a great distance ; and the insurmountable difficulty 

 that this fact raises against the hypothesis which brings the 

 coal plants from tropical regions into our climates, does not 

 the less remain.* 



Yet the reflections of M. Charpentier and the facts he 

 cites, throws uncertainty on the primitive situation of these 

 vertical stems, and ought to engage us to continue our obser- 

 vations, and teach us that we cannot draw any absolute and 

 general conclusion from this fact. 



/^ 



'* For an account of tlie vegetables of the coal measures, consult- 

 Conybeare and Phillips's Outline of tlit; Geology of England and Wales. 

 Part i. p. 333 to 343. (Trans.) 



