Page:Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology, 1837, volume 1.djvu/349

 Rh The roof is covered as with a canopy of gorgeous tapestry, enriched with festoons of most graceful foliage, flung in wild, irregular profusion over every portion of its surface. The effect is heightened by the contrast of the coal-black colour of these vegetables, with the light ground-work of the rock to which they are attached. The spectator feels himself transported, as if by enchantment, into the forests of another world; he beholds Trees, of forms and characters now unknown upon the surface of the earth, presented to his senses almost in the beauty and vigour of their primeval life; their scaly stems, and bending branches, with their delicate apparatus of foliage, are all spread forth before him; little impaired by the lapse of countless Ages, and bearing faithful records of extinct systems of vegetation, which began and terminated in times of which these relics are the infallible Historians.

Such are the grand natural Herbaria wherein these most ancient remains of the vegetable kingdom are preserved, in a state of integrity, little short of their living perfection, under conditions of our Planet which exist no more.

remains of plants of the Transition period are most abundant in that newest portion of the deposites of this era, which constitutes the Coal Formation, and afford decisive evidence as to the condition of the vegetable kingdom at this early epoch in the history of Organic Life.

The Nature of our Evidence will be best illustrated, by selecting a few examples of the many genera of fossil plants