CHAPTER V. 
FLORA OF TERTIARY AND SECONDARY ROCKS. 
Plan of Investigation. London Clay. Sheppey Fruits. South 
American Fossil Forests. Amber. Flora of the Chalk and 
Greensand. Oolites. Portland Quarries and their Cycadean 
Remains. New Red Sandstone. 
“ Oh there is not lost 
One of earth’s charms : upon her bosom yet 
After the flight of untold centuries, 
The freshness of her far beginning lies, 
And yet shall lie.” 
We have next to enter upon the investi¬ 
gation of those strata which are beneath 
the accumulations now in course of forma¬ 
tion. 
The surface of the earth derives its 
present fitness and beauty, not so much 
from the quantity or richness of its vegeta¬ 
ble soil, as from the distribution and 
character of the subjacent strata. If the 
