36 
THE GEOLOGICAL ANTIQUITY OF FLOWERS AND 
INSECTS. 
By J. E. TAYLOR, F.G.S., &c. 
N O naturalist will deny that, in every period of the earth’s 
palaeontological history, the animal and vegetable 
kingdoms have been correlated, no matter how lowly organized 
they may have been. But if the geological record is im- 
perfect as regards the animal life which has peopled our 
globe during past ages, none will be surprised that it should 
be considerably more so as regards extinct vegetable types. 
The chances are infinitely against the preservation of the latter 
in sufficient perfection to enable modern botanists correctly to 
make out their relationships. The earliest plants were formed 
of loose vascular and cellular tissues, which readily decom- 
posed, and were therefore difficult of fossilization. Plants 
do not possess such hard and comparatively indestructible parts 
as the majority of animals have, as teeth, bones, tests, and 
shells. Only a few plants have external substances capable 
of resisting decomposition, but such species rank low in the 
scale of classification, as in the case of the Diatomacece , which 
possess siliceous frustules or valves. The horse-tails ( JEqui - 
setacece) are remarkable among plants by the large quantity of 
silica which enters into the tissue of their exterior; and in 
this respect they resemble many of the grasses, notably such 
gigantic species as the bamboo. 
With the exception of the Algce , or sea-weeds, plants are 
chiefly terrestrial in their habits. Even those flowering plants 
we call aquatic, generally grow at the margins of the land 
or in shallow water. The number of true flowering plants, 
such as Ruppia and Zostera , which live in brackish or salt- 
water is very few. Consequently geologists are dependent for 
the preservation of plants upon fewer physical possibilities than 
those which allow animal remains to be fossilized. Only 
where an extensive lake has had sediments quietly forming 
along its bottom, or in the estuary of some large and not too 
turbulent river, has it been possible for plants to be mineralized; 
