180 The Wonders of the Permian 



CHAPTER XIII 



THE WONDERS OF THE PBEMIAN 



How wonderfully God works in one's life! I 

 must have fallen from the log, for I dreamed, 

 Maud and I had both disappeared into a sluggish 

 lagoon. When I came to my senses, I discovered 

 that I was in a great jungle of vegetation ; that 

 belonged to a very early age I recognized the 

 dense forest of many species of Carboniferous 

 Tree Ferns and Tree Rushes; and many species 

 of Cycads. Nearly all the trees were inward 

 growers, with plumes of vegetation on top of the 

 scar-marked trunks, from which the leaves had 

 already fallen during their growth upward. I 

 knew that only a thin, hard, outer covering pro- 

 tected the pith beneath of most of the trees 

 around me. Although there were pines, the 

 Angiosperms had not yet appeared. Everywhere 

 were dense masses of sponge moss, and moss-like 

 trees. 



Lepidodendrons bushy crest 

 Wave back and forth, together prest; 

 While sponge-moss hangs in festoons gay 

 Across the thickly planted way. 



The climate was tropical; the heat intense. 



