748 



THE WONDERS OE GEOLOGY. Lect. VII. 



under which those strata were accumulated were unfavour- 

 able to the envelopment and preservation of terrestrial 

 plants. We have seen that the grand fundamental dis- 

 tinctions of the vegetable kingdom existed in the early 

 secondary ages, a fact in accordance with what we observed 

 in the animal kingdom : and thus the same unity of purpose 

 and design is manifest in all the varied forms of organization 

 that lived on our planet, through the vast periods of time 

 which geological investigations have enabled us to scan. 



