SEA WEEDS. 451 
teiiis of vegetation, on the earlier surfaces of our 
earth, with those which actually prevail. Should 
it result from this enquiry, that the families which 
make up our fossil Flora were formed on princi* 
pies, either identical with those that regulate the 
development of existing plants, or so closely 
allied to them, as to form connected parts of 
one and the same great system of laws, for the 
universal regulation of organic life, we shall 
add another link to the chain of arguments 
wdiich we extract from the interior of the Earth, 
in proof of the Unity of the Intelligence and of 
the Power, which have presided over the entire 
construction of the material world. 
We have seen that the first remains of Animal 
life yet noticed are marine, and as the existence 
of any kind of animals implies the prior, or at least 
the contemporaneous existence of Vegetables, to 
afford them sustenance, the presence of sea weeds 
in strata coeval with these most ancient animals, 
and their continuance onwards throughout all 
formations of marine origin, is a matter o^ a priori 
probability, which has been confirmed by the 
results of actual observation. M. Adolphe Brong- 
niart, in his admirable History of Fossil Vege- 
tables,* has shewn, that the existing submarine 
vegetatiofi seems to admit of three great divisions 
Avhich characterize, to a certain degree, the Plants 
of the frigid, temperate, and torrid zones ; and 
* Histoire des Vegetaux Fossile?, 4to. Paris, 1828. 
