58 
PALMS AND FIRS. 
“ Thou art 0 God the life and light 
Of all this wondrous world we see ! 
Its glow by day, its smile by night, 
Are but reflections caught from thee ! 
Where e’er we turn thy glories shine, 
And all things fair and bright are thine.’'— Moore. 
IV. The fourth great division includes the 
Fir tribe, and the Cycadice^ the latter a race 
of low palms growing in warm climates, and 
found in great numbers in the Oolitic series 
of England, imbedded in the quarries which 
furnish the common Portland stone. 
Firs are easily distinguished by the cones 
and peculiar leaves which they bear; their 
geographical range is co-extensive under 
ever-varying forms with that of vegetation 
itself, and the same may almost be said of 
their geological occurrence. 
Pine wood is found in all the bogs and 
submerged forests of our island, but it is all 
of one species the common Scotch Fir. 
Below the superficial deposits, and amidst 
the gravels of still earlier date, in the lacus¬ 
trine deposits of the upper tertiary, cones and 
wood of this order are discovered, the Oolite 
furnishes the y^w and the cedar^ the red 
