53 



be unnecessary to urge the enlightened and public spirited persons, 

 to whose hands this great undertaking is committed, to finish with as 

 much promptitude as possible what has been so admirably begun. 



The effective establishment in this country of a society for the 

 cultivation of Zoology, — a source of just gratification to all who are 

 interested in the progress of Natural History, — is an event connected 

 very intimately with the advancement of our subject : for to the 

 Geologist it is of great importance to obtain facility of access to ca- 

 binets and to living specimens, in elucidation of fossil remains ; and 

 and to have the privilege of appealing, in doubtful cases, to compe- 

 tent authorities, in what relates to the animal kingdom. But the 

 connection of Zoology with our science, is a field too wide to be dis- 

 cussed upon the present occasion ; nor would my own acquaintance 

 with the subject justify my dwelling upon it. 



The numerous provincial institutions, which have been recently 

 established for the promotion of useful knowledge, will also materially 

 contribute to the diffusion of a taste for Geology ; and will throw 

 new light upon the structure and productions of their respective dis- 

 tricts. 



I wish that it had been in my power to speak with equal gratifica- 

 tion, of the relation in which our subject stands to another principal 

 department of Natural History ; but the fossil remains of the vege- 

 table kingdom do not appear to occupy, at present, a just share of the 

 attention of Botanists in England :. and hence it has happened, that 

 of the numerous and interesting specimens of fossil plants continu- 

 ally brought to light from our strata, especially within the coal dis- 

 tricts, the greater part has been sent for illustration to those na- 

 turalists on the continent, whose publications upon this branch of 

 inquiry, are so creditably known to science. Ought we not then 

 to imitate the example of those, for whose labours we have so much 

 reason to be grateful; and to reflect, that — if the botanical charac- 

 ters of fossil specimens be obscure, and the investigation of them at 

 present unsatisfactory, — the subject is still comparatively new, and 

 the difficulties such as perseverance and the multiplication of speci- 

 mens must every day diminish : whilst the views to be derived from 

 the connection of vegetable remains with geology, are scarcely infe- 

 rior in interest to those already disclosed by the fossil remains of 

 animals ? The distribution of plants upon the former surfaces of the 

 globe, — its relation to the epochs of geological deposition, — the varia- 

 tions it may have undergone from change of ciimate, either by alter- 

 ation of internal temperature, or of elevation above the sea ; — the 

 former existence of vegetation in the more complex forms, in tracts 



