FOSSIL CONIFER.^. 483 
fire ; a change during which it becomes sub- 
servient to the most important wants and con- 
veniences of Man. In this seventh stage of its 
long eventful history, it seems to the vulgar eye 
to undergo annihilation ; its Elements are in- 
deed released from the mineral combinations 
they have maintained for ages, but their ap- 
parent destruction is only the commencement of 
new successions of change and of activity. Set 
free from their long imprisonment, they return 
to their native Atmosphere, from which they 
were absorbed to take part in the primeval vege- 
tation of the Earth. To-morrow, they may con- 
tribute to the substance of timber, in the Trees 
of our existing forests; and having for a while 
resumed their place in the living vegetable king- 
dom, may, ere long be applied a second time 
to the use and benefit of man. And when 
decay or fire shall once more consign them to the 
earth, or to the atmosphere, the same Elements 
will enter on some further department, of their 
perpetual ministration, in the economy of the 
material world. 
Fossil ConifercB.^ 
The Coniferae form a large and very important 
tribe among living plants, which are charac- 
*See PI. 1. Figs. 1. 31. 32. 69. 
