716 



THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. 



Lect. VII. 



groups of from five to twenty, and were evidently didy- 

 mous, that is, grew in pairs.* 



35. Fossil Ferns. — The Brake or fern of our commons 

 and waste lands, is a familiar example of a remarkable and 

 numerous family of plants, distinguished by the peculiar 

 distribution of their seed-vessels. The arborescent ferns 

 rise into trees from thirty to forty feet in height, their 

 stems being marked with scars from the decay of the leaf- 

 stalks, and their summits covered with an elegant canopy 

 of foliage; their general appearance is shown in this 

 sketch (Lign. 167, Jig. 5). The leaves of the herbaceous 

 species are very elegant, and present great variety in 

 their forms, and in the mode in which the veins of the 



1 2 



Lign. 157. — From the Carboniferous strata at Burdie-House. p. 693. 



Fig. 1. Sphenopteris linearis. 

 — 2. affinis. 



leaf are disposed ; from the character of the latter, M. Adol- 

 phe Brongniart has established the generic distinctions of 

 the fossil plants of this family. The beautiful state in 

 which these remains occur in the coal shale, is shown in the 

 * Medals of Creation, p. 153, Lign. 34. 



