from new germinal matter, till they have formed enough of vegetable substance for the sporules of the mosses, 
which at their seasons of fructification float extensively in the atmosphere, to fix on and to grow from. These 
mosses in like manner vegetate and decay, and on their decayed remains a new vegetation of the same sort 
springs up in like manner to die and become a thicker mould for the passing seeds of other plants to find 
sufficient for their germination. This process may be noticed on roofs, and in part on palings, only the latter, 
being perpendicular, the new seeds do not sufficiently fasten on them, but drop off to the ground. It may 
be seen more clearly on inclined tiling, and partly on the common roofs. There, if the experiment be 
made and be patiently watched for a few years, the progression will be distinctly seen. I have found 
Mosses arise upon the decaying lichens and new mosses, of a thicker foliage, grow upon the dead matter of 
the former ones ; and the grasses afterwards appear, as soon as the decayed remains had become a sufficient 
soil for their germination. Every year thus produces a new bed of vegetable matter, which is frequented by 
the seeds of new plants, and in time, of trees. Thus, in the course of a few years, every new coral island 
that is made by its petty architects, and every volcanic one that arises in the sea, become, in no long time, 
covered with plants and trees. 
As vegetation has thus disseminated itself in our own experience from country to country, and still con- 
tinues to do so from places where it abounds, to every new surface in which it is deficient, it seems to be 
a reasonable presumption, that at the epoch of its creation some similar system was adopted for its diffusion. 
In the appointed spot of the Garden of Eden and in its vicinity, on the suited soils, all the families of the 
Botanical Kingdom may have simultaneously appeared as soon as the order for their productiou was ex- 
pressed. All the previous preparations having been made, they would emerge simultaneously to the com- 
mand. One large district, or island, with mountain, hill, marsh, heath and valley, would have been quite 
sufficient for primeval evolution of a sufficient number of every species. In this space, with those differences 
in the nature and elevation of the surface, all the known classes of vegetation might germinate and grow. 
Such a region appears now in one single island within the torrid zone, where both the alpine and the equa- 
torial herbs and trees have been observed and discriminated by the scientific Botanist. 
From such an originating region as this, the various plants, if left to the operation of their respective 
qualities, and of the natural agencies, which in the established course of things are gradually acting upon 
them, would be progressively disseminated into every other country, according as its various localities should 
be adapted to receive them. Few, if any, plants are strictly confined to one zone or latitude on the earth. 
All may grow every where, although in some soils and climates they will spread more numerously and grow 
more luxuriantly than elsewhere. It has been observed of the rocky places, where only the lower and 
smaller classes of vegetable ' can subsist, that the seminal particles do not settle and spring up from some, 
but yet will evolve in others. But each as it floats along the even-moving breeze, selects, as it were, its own 
suited bed of nutrition, and there unfolds its efflorescence and produces its successor. Aqueous plants 
would in like manner arise as their seeds were wafted to watery places. And in this way Vegetation may 
have originally spread from the district where it was flourishing, to those which it had not before reached. 
This progressive diffusion would journey far beyond the disseminating process of animals or man, and 
would so far precede them, that, long before they could extend their dispersing colonies around, the earth 
would be every where abundantly clothed with all that either could require.* 
Turner’s Sacred History. 
