THE FLOHA OF THE KIRLT MESOZOIC. 189 



in Virgitiia, these are merely precursors of those of the 

 Upper Cretaceous, and are not safficient to redeem the 

 earlier Gretaceoos from being a period of pines and eyeads. 



On the whole, this early Mesozoic flora, so &r as 

 known to ns, has a monotonons and mean appearance. 

 It no doubt formed rast forests of tall pines, perhaps re- 

 sembling the giant Sequoias of California ; but they mnst 

 for the most part have been dark and dismal woods, 

 probably tenanted by few forms of life, for the great re]>- 

 tiles of this age must haye preferred the open and sunny 

 coasts, and many of them dwelt in the waters. StiU we 

 mnst not be too sure of this. The berries and nuts of the 

 numerous yews and cycads were capable of affording 

 much food. We know that in this age there were many 

 great herbiTorous reptiles, like Iguanodon and Hadrosau- 

 rus, some of them fitted by their structure to feed upon 

 tiie leaves and fruits of trees. There were also several 

 kinds of small herbiTorous mammals, and much insect 

 life, and it is likely that few of the inhabitants of the 

 Mesozoic woods hare been preserved as fossOs. We may 

 yet hare much to learn of the inhabitants of these forests 

 of ferns, cjcads, and pines. We must not forget in this 

 connection that in the present day there are laige islands, 

 like Sew Zealand, destitute of mammalia, and baring a 

 flora comparable with that of the Mesozoic in the northern 

 hemisphere, though more varied. We have also the re- 

 mark^le example of Australia, with a much richer flora 

 than that of the early Mesozoic, yet inhabited only by 

 non-placental mammals, like those of the Mesozoic. 



The principal l^acy that the Mesozoic woods hare 

 handed down to our time is in some beds of coal, locaQy 

 important, but of far less extent than those of the Car- 

 boniferous period. Still, in America, the Sichmond coal- 

 field in Virginia is of this age, and so are the anthracite 

 beds of the Qneen Charlotte Islands, on the west coast of 

 Canada, and the coal of Brora in SuTherlandshire. Vdn- 

 18 



