134 
STIGMARIA. 
some of the best and most closely observed 
instances of its mode of occurrence in the 
bed before described, the arms could be 
traced from the central dome, slanting 
downwards into the coal, where all trace of 
them was completely lost. Coal, which 
rarely bears any outward vegetable form, 
presents that of Stigmaria oftener than any 
other, and it is certainly one of the most 
abundant fossils of the whole formation, 
from which facts we should appear fully 
warranted in considering that the growth 
of plants of this class was one of the great 
means made use of by the Almighty archi¬ 
tect of the globe, in absorbing and render¬ 
ing solid that excess of carbon, which it is 
believed, must at the period of the formation 
of the coal measures, have existed in the 
atmosphere ; thus rendering it fit for the 
support of animal life, and at last a ])roper 
habitation for man. We cannot contem¬ 
plate this storing up such a mass of com¬ 
bustible matter, and the iron which always 
accompanies it in the depths of the earth, 
at a remote epoch, tor the consumption and 
enjoyment of creatures afterwards to exi^t 
