26 



DISTRIBUTION OF ORGANIC REMAINS 



Vegetable Petrifactions. — Respecting the ancient condition of our 

 planet, the remains of vegetables, found in different strata afford in- 

 teresting information which we could not have obtained from animal 

 remains alone. The animal remains found in the transition rocks 

 are almost exclusively marine ; hence, we could not have inferred, 

 from these remains alone, that any portion of the globe was dry land, 

 when these rocks were deposited. In some of the slate rocks, how- 

 ever, a few remains of terrestrial plants, analogous to ferns, occasion- 

 ally occur, which indicate the existence at that remote epoch, of is- 

 lands or tracts of land. In the strata of sandstone and shale, which 

 alternate with coal and cover transition rocks of marine origin, the 

 remains of terrestrial vegetables are abundantly distributed, and those 

 of marine animals disappear, entirely, in most of the beds : the |jart 

 formerly covered by the sea with rivers, lakes, and marshes, on which 

 the plants had grown, or were deposited, had therefore, become dry 

 land. Again, at a subsequent period, the dry land and its vegetation 

 became buried under a deep ocean, that deposited numerous calca- 

 reous beds, filled with shells and remains of marine animals, but 

 occasionally containing a few broken fossil stems of terrestrial plants, 

 which had probably been carried into the ocean, by the rivers of dis- 

 tant countries. In the upper strata, the alteration of marine and 

 fresh water formations are distinct and frequent. 



Now it appears, that as we ascend from the lower to the upper or 

 more recent strata, a progression from simple to more complex, or, 

 in other words, from less perfect to more perfect forms, takes place 

 in the vegetable as well as in the animal kingdom. 



Avoiding technical expressions as much as the subject will admit 

 of, I will endeavour to state this, intelligibly, to the geological student, 

 who may be at present, unacquainted with vegetable physiology. 



Vegetables of all kinds may be arranged under two grand divi- \ 

 sions — Cellular and Vascular. 



Cellular — without regular vessels, but composed of fibres, which 

 sometimes cross and interlace. Confervae, lichens, fungi, algae, 

 or sea-weed, and mosses belong to this division. In some of 

 these families, there are no apparent organs of fructification. 

 Vascular — with vessels which form organs of nutrition and repro- 

 duction. According to the arrangement of these organs, and 



been well observed by Cuvier, that the bones of men, left on the field of battle with 

 those of horses, are as well preserved as the latter, making allowance for the dif- 

 ference of size. Neither is there any essential diiference in the chemical constit- 

 uent parts of human bone from those of other animals of the class mammalia. 

 Dry bones, according to Berzelius, contain as under : — 



Human Human Ox Ox 



Bones. Teeth. Bones. Teeth. 



Cartilage, . ... 33 — 33 35 



Phosphate of lime, - - 51 85'3 55 81 



Carbonate of lime, - - 115 8 9 7 - 



Fluate of lime, - - - 2 3 2 3 4 



Phosphate of magnesia, - 12 15 2 3 



Soda and muriate of soda, - 1-3 2 2 2 



