4 INTRODUCTION. 



of Nature's early productions. The study of the wonders of creative power, 

 so profusely scattered wherever we cast our eyes, is calculated to improve 

 the tone of public feeling, by turning into channels of useful inquiry the 

 natural activity of the human mind, to elevate and enlarge our conceptions, 

 and to soften and improve our affections. The study of fossils in particular 

 carries back our thoughts to a time when the British Isles had no place, in 

 their present form, on the map of the world, and when land and sea, moun- 

 tains and valleys, rivers and plains, continents and oceans, must have been 

 arranged in a way entirely different from what we now behold. While 

 their extreme antiquity commands our veneration, their immense numbers 

 and inconceivable variety and beauty impress us with sentiments of wonder 

 and gratitude, at so great and so marvellous a design. 



In the following pages, I propose, 1st, To offer some general remarks 

 on fossil vegetation, from the earliest sedimentary deposits up to the period 

 of the deposition of the chalks, and on the nature and origin of coal ; 2dly, 

 To exhibit the distinctive characters of the different tribes of plants in gene- 

 ral, and of the Coniferse in particular ; 3dly, To describe the fossil stems 

 retaining organic structure, which have been found in the strata of the Car- 

 boniferous series ; and to endeavour to illustrate the nature of coal, by pre- 

 senting the traces of organization, which I have discovered in certain varie- 

 ties of that substance ; 4thly, To describe the structure of certain fossil 

 stems found in the Lias and Oolite ; 5thly, To conclude with some general 

 remarks on the plants described, and with an arrangment of them into ge- 

 nera and species, so far as it may be considered practicable. All the objects 

 described will be illustrated by numerous engravings ; and a brief description 

 of the mode of preparing recent and fossil plants for microscopic examina- 

 tion will be given in an appendix. 



To Mr Macgillivray, for his unremitted attention and assiduity in 

 the difficult task of executing the beautiful drawings from which the en- 

 gravings have been made, and for his kind assistance in the minute botani- 

 cal descriptions of the various plants here presented to the public, I beg to 

 acknowledge my sincere obligation. 



