DEVONIAN PERIOD 
Along the flats, where rivulets are flowing, 
Dense brakes of reedy calamites are growing. 
True ferns in wild profusion now abound 100 
In feathery pride. And graceful from the ground 
Some rise as trees, and closely gathered stand 
On favouring soils, as forests on the land. 
And whilst, in time, club-mosses will decline, 
And but as pigmies keep alive their line ; 105 
And calamites, from fast and wide advance, 
Will dwindle into insignificance ; 
And other growths will wholly disappear, 
Yielding their place to forms of life more fair ; 
Ferns tree and shrub their glory will retain no 
To grace the earth, and greet the eyes of men. 
But newer growths than these now hold the place 
Of prime exemplars of the leafy race : 
For types ancestral of the Pines and Yews 
Now vest the landscape with their sombre hues. 115 
Although with fern and club-moss close allied, 
True trees are they, of all the scene the pride : 
And forest kings, wherever they intrude, 
As up they stand on stems of thickened wood : 
And with their puny flowers proclaim the rise 120 
Of flowering plants amid the flowerless. 
But heavy gases in the air prevail, 
Too dense for fine formed plant life to inhale, 
27 
