THE FOSSIL FLORA. 
199 
that, if, at any future period, the Carbonaceous deposit should be 
removed, the surface of the beds, either above or below it, would be 
even and flat? Would it not rather be found, that the interstices and 
inequalities which there must be betwixt the trunks of the trees, had 
been filled up by the matter which covered the mass, and that some 
of the stronger stems, having settled unequally, had stood out, pene¬ 
trating the surrounding soft strata, either above or below ? Some¬ 
thing of this kind, under similar circumstances, must, at all times, 
have been the case; yet, nothing like an indication of it attends our 
coal beds, for, not only are they, as before observed, free from the 
admixture of matter foreign to the formation, but the surfaces by 
which the coal is separated from the beds above and below it, are as 
even and well defined, as those of the limestones in the lower part of 
the series. 
From the circumstances already related, we are compelled to the 
conclusion, that the beds of coal chiefly originated in vegetable mat¬ 
ter which lived, died, and was decomposed, upon the spots where we 
now find it. The analogy of Peat, at the present day, naturally sug¬ 
gests itself; and, according to this view of the subject, we must 
consider each of our coal beds as having originated in an extended 
surface of marshy land, covered with a rank luxuriant vegetation. 
Should the length of time required for such an accumulation of vege¬ 
table matter suggest itself as a difficulty, it may be in part got over, 
when we bear in mind the fact of the enormous size of the individual 
plants, and that all those having any living analogues, sufficiently 
attest a much more rapid growth, consequent upon a heated humid 
atmosphere, than, at present, is anywhere known to take place. 
The difference is, probably, not greater betwixt the stunted growth 
of an Iceland vegetation of the present day, and the rank luxuriance 
of a tropical swamp, than between even the latter and the vegetation 
of the Carboniferous period. 
The remains of Stigmaria are so abundant throughout the whole 
of the Carboniferous formation, that it is impossible to travel far 
along any road, without its form being detected by the practised eye. 
In 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 to be fully 
warranted in considering, that the growth of plants of this class was 
