CHAPTER III. 
GENERAL VIEW OF FOSSIL BOTANY. 
Enumeration of Plants found Fossil. The Flowerless Class. 
Southern Type of Fossil Sea-Weed. Absence of Mosses. 
Equisetum. Calamites. Ferns and Tree Ferns. Monotonous 
Character of Ancient Vegetation. Fir Trees and their persis¬ 
tence throughout all Strata. Lepidostrobi. Lepidodendron. 
Palms and Cycadae. Sigillaria. Singular Arrangement of 
Branches. Ditficulties of the Inquiry. Conversion of Vegeta¬ 
ble Matter. Wisdom of the Arrangements. 
Nor to the surface of enliven'd earth, 
Graceful with hills, and dales, and leafy woods. 
Her liberal tresses, is thy force confin'd : 
But, to the bowel'd cavern darting deep. 
The mineral kinds confess thy mighty power."— Thomson. 
There are about eighteen hundred dif¬ 
ferent kinds of plants discovered imbedded 
in the earth in a fossil state. They occur^ 
for the most part^ in very numerous assem¬ 
blages of individual forms, so that the num- 
