FLORA. 209 
And there follow some important remarks bearing upon 
the subject of evolution and development, after which 
are discussed the coal formations, 
The beds of coal are often found underlaid and overlaid 
and intermixed with layers of schists, rocky matter 
capable of being split into thin divisions like slates, and 
so named from the Latin schistus. The accepted opinion 
is that coals are the remains of accumulated masses of 
woody matter, leaves, twigs, stems, and trunks of herba- 
ceous and arborescent vegetables, in depressions which 
were alternately dry or nearly dry, and filled with water 
from which was deposited the schisty matter, the whole 
being subsequently submerged for ages by the sea, from 
which, in the course of these protracted ages, deposits far 
exceeding them in thickness were superimposed upon 
them, while subsequently they were under the pressure of 
these subjected to intense heat, whereby was effected a 
partial decomposition of them which resulted in the 
formation of the coal. : 
In view of this being a generally accepted opinion, 
Count Saporta goes on to say:— _ 
‘The most ancient land plants of which we have any 
knowledge have left their imprint on the schists which 
generally accompany the beds of coaJ. It does not follow, 
however, that beyond the submerged basins, or peat bogs, 
which supply a place for the deposit of the schists or of 
leafy sandstone girts rich in vegetable imprints, the land 
elevated above the level of the sea,—that is to say, the 
crystalline masses which represented the continents of the 
period, were devoid of vegetables. Far from that being 
the case, it is on the contrary shown by silicified seeds 
embedded in the gaps of the carboniferous age, that there 
existed then a forest vegetation, composed especially of 
prototypical conifers and different from that of which the 
coal beds have preserved the remains. The former 
occupied the interior of the land and the sloping portions 
of the soil which had been for a long time emerged ; the 
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