GEOLOGY FOR BEGINNERS. 
557 
and of marble ; the tombs which he reared 
over the objects of his affection ; the shrines 
which he erected in honour of his God ! But 
in the absence of these, or any other trace of 
man, in any, save the most superficial of 
deposits, we are compelled to acknowledge the 
chronology of Holy Writ ; to recognise the 
complete and satisfactory accordance of 
science with revelation ; and to admit that the 
existence of man has not extended beyond 
those five or six thousand years upon the 
earth, which the Scriptures assign as the 
period of his creation. It will be self-evident 
that this fact, like many others in natural 
science, far from lowering our ideas of the 
Divine perfections, serves only to strengthen 
and exalt them. It is, in fact, impossible to 
form a more magnificent conception of Infinite 
bounty and wisdom than that which reason 
and revelation here combine to offer : repre- 
senting the Supreme Being as first elaborating 
and perfecting our earth into one vast sphere 
of blessings ; erecting, on a foundation of 
granite, a vast superstructure of sandstones, 
limestones, clays, shales, salts, coal, and the 
varied substances known as rocks ; injecting 
their fissures and crevices with minerals and 
metallic ores ; then, by the intrusion of vol- 
canic agency, bringing these varied deposits 
near the surface, and so diversifying the soil 
as to present every variety of condition best 
adapted for its mineral, agricultural, and 
economical cultivation ; tempering, as well, 
the climate to the degree best adapted for 
human health and enjoyment ; peopling it 
with animals adapted for the use of man, for 
supplying him with food, and assisting him in 
his labours ; and, finally, calling man himself 
into existence, to take possession of a world, 
which Infinite wisdom and benevolence had 
thus prepared and perfected for his reception 
and enjoyment." — Pp. 89 — 92. 
One of the early errors of geologists, was 
that of assuming that at particular periods of 
the history of the earth particular plants 
were unknown, and this was assumed from the 
fact of the total absence in particular for- 
mations wherein many other plants abounded. 
Professor Lindley, by a very simple experi- 
ment, set this matter at rest, by proving that 
the absence of fossil remains was no evidence 
whatever of the absence of the plants at that 
period ; but we must quote the substance of 
the experiment alluded to. 
" The great preponderance of ferns, and of 
the higher order of cryptogamic plants, in the 
flora of the ancient earth, having excited, in a 
peculiar degree, the attention of naturalists, 
and it being conceived that the total absence of 
certain kinds of plants, and the constant presence 
of others, with other points of like nature and 
interest, might be accounted for by a difference 
in the capability of one plant beyond another 
of resisting the action of water, Dr. Lindley 
resolved on trying the result of an actual 
experiment. He, therefore, on the 21st of 
March, 1883, filled a large iron tank with 
water, and immersed in it 177 specimens of 
various plants, belonging to the more remark- 
able natural orders, taking care, in particular, 
to include representatives of all those which 
are either constantly present in the coal- 
measures, or as universally absent. The 
vessel was placed in the open air, left 
uncovered, and was untouched, with the 
exception of filling up the water as it evapo- 
rated, till the 22d April, 1835, that is, for 
rather more than two years. At the end of 
that time what remained was examined, when 
the following highly important results were 
obtained: — 
" In the first place, it was found that the 
dicotyledonous plants, in general, had wholly 
disappeared, whence it was inferred, that they 
were unable to remain for two years in water 
without being totally decomposed ; the prin- 
cipal part of those which did possess that 
power appeared to be coniferce and ajcaclere, 
which are precisely those which we find 
best preserved in a fossil state : secondly, 
it seemed that monocotyledons survived 
to a considerable extent, whence it was 
concluded that they are more capable of 
resisting the action of water, in particular, 
palms and scitamineous plants, which are what 
we principally find as fossils ; but that grasses 
and sedges perished ; whence it was inferred 
that we have no right to assume that the earth 
was not originally clothed with grasses, because 
we no longer find their remains : thirdly, that 
fungi and mosses, and all the lowest forms of 
vegetation, disappeared, and that even equise- 
tum left no traces behind ; and finally, that 
ferns appeared to have a great power of 
resisting water if gathered in a green state, 
not one of them having disappeared during 
the experiment ; but that the effect of immer- 
sion in water was to cause their fructification 
to rot away, a result which we constantly 
meet with in the fossil specimens. 
" Hence, Dr. Lindley assumes, as a general 
result, that the numerical proportion of 
different families of plants, found in a fossil 
state, throws no light whatever upon the 
ancient climate of the earth ; but depends 
entirely upon the power which particular fami- 
lies may possess, by virtue of the organi- 
zation of their cuticle, of resisting the action 
of the water in which they floated, previously to 
their being finally fixed in the rocks in which 
they are now found."— Pp. 306—308. 
The foregoing extracts will give the reader 
some idea of the author's style and competency; 
and we need not say he has handled the sub- 
