. The testimony of the rocks; . this Highland shore we have not a very inadequate 52 THE PAL^ONTOLOGICAL representation of the first, or thallogenic vegetation, — thatof the great Silurian period, as exhibited in the rocks, fromthe base to nearly the top of the system. And should weadd to the rocky tract, rich in fucoids, a submarine meadowof pale shell sand, covered by a deep green swathe of zos-tera, with its jointed saccharine roots and slim flowers, un-furnished with petals, we would render it perhaps moreadequately representative still. We cross the beach, and enter on a bare bro^vn moor,
. The testimony of the rocks; . this Highland shore we have not a very inadequate 52 THE PAL^ONTOLOGICAL representation of the first, or thallogenic vegetation, — thatof the great Silurian period, as exhibited in the rocks, fromthe base to nearly the top of the system. And should weadd to the rocky tract, rich in fucoids, a submarine meadowof pale shell sand, covered by a deep green swathe of zos-tera, with its jointed saccharine roots and slim flowers, un-furnished with petals, we would render it perhaps moreadequately representative still. We cross the beach, and enter on a bare bro^vn moor,comparatively fertile, however, in the club mosses. One ofthe largest and finest of the species, Lycopodium clavatum^with its long scaly stems and upright spikes of lighter green,— altogether a graceful though flowerless plant, which theherd-boy learns to select from among its fellows, and to bindrpund his cap, — goes trailing on the drier spots for manyfeet over the soil; while at the edge of trickling runnel or Fig. OSMUNDA REGALis. (Royal Fem.) marshy hollow, a smaller and less hardy species, JOycopo-dmm immdatum^ takes its place. The marslies themselvesbristle thick with the deej) green horse tail, Equisetuin HISTORY OF PLANTS. 53 fluviatile^ witli its fluted stem and verticillate series of linearbranches. Two other species of the same genus, Eqidsetiionsylvaticxim and Equisetiim arvense^ flourish on the drierparts of the moor, blent with two species of minute ferns,the moonwort and the adders tongue, — ferns that, like themagnificent royal fern {Osmiinda regalis)^ though on a|much humbler scale, bear their seed cases on independentstems, and were much sought after of old for imaginaryvirtues, which the modem schools of medicine refuse torecognize. Higher up the moor, ferns of ampler size occur,and what seems to be rushes, which bear atop conglobatepanicles on their smooth leafless stems; but at its loweredge little else appears than the higher Acrogens, — fer
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