224 



CLIMATE OF CARBONIFEROUS PERIOD. 



[Ch. XL 



me the most 



of science which can be suggested. That glaciers should 

 have reached the sea in lat. 53°, in England, cannot sur- 

 prise us when we see them coming down at present to within 



500 feet of the sea 



l New Zealand, in lat. 44°, or much 

 nearer the equator ; and it has been already stated, p. 211 that 

 tree-ferns and even palms now nourish in New Zealand in 



mrhood of these glaciers. It should 



immediate 



mind 



remains in the Permian conglomerates of Central England • 

 and we know not by what plants or animals the lands and 

 seas were inhabited at the time of their accumulation, and 

 consequently, we are ignorant, so far as we depend on organic 

 evidence, of the nature of the climate which prevailed in that 



era, when the stones which have ap- 



part of the Permian 



parently been glaciated were carried to their present sites. 



Climate of Carboniferous Period — fossil plants. — If we next 

 consider the climate of the Carboniferous period, we shall 

 find that botanists have considerably modified the ideas which 

 they originally entertained respecting the tropical tempera- 

 ture supposed to be indicated by the fossil plants of that era. 

 The fruit called Trigonocarpon, occurring in such profusion in 



was at first referred to the palm tribe, 

 of more perfect specimens enabled Dr. 



measures 



till the discovery of 



Hooker to decide that __ ,._,., „« v ^^ w 



belonged to a taxoid conifer, somewhat like the Chinese Sa- 

 lisburia. The structure of the coniferous wood preserved in 

 these strata exhibit some points of analogy with the Arau- 

 carise of Chili, Brazi 



New Holland, and Norfolk 



The preponderance of ferns, 



several of them belonging 

 to arborescent genera, such as Caulopteris, Zippea, Sphal- 



mopteris, and 



in 



would incline us to think, 



according to the analogy of the living creation, that the cli- 

 mate was warm, moist, and equable, for tree ferns are now 

 most abundant in islands of the tropical ocean, although 

 some species extend in New Zealand, as before stated, as far 

 towards the antarctic regions as the 46th degree of south 

 latitude. Next to ferns, the Sigillarise and Lepidodendra 

 are the most common vegetable forms. The fruit of Siffil- 



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