. The testimony of the rocks; . xpect to find developed in the^ea. In the higher reaches of the Cromarty Frith, theZostera beds, which are of great extent, are much fre-4uented, during the more protracted frosts of a severewinter, by wild geese and swans, that dig up and ^ the saccharine roots of the plant. The Zostera ofthe warmer latitudes attain to a larger size than thoseof our Scottish seas. A southern species, says Loudon,^^Zostera oceanica, has leaves a foot long and an inch FOSSIL FLORAS OF SCOTLAND. 433 broad. It is used as a thatch, which is said to last acentury; bleaches wh
. The testimony of the rocks; . xpect to find developed in the^ea. In the higher reaches of the Cromarty Frith, theZostera beds, which are of great extent, are much fre-4uented, during the more protracted frosts of a severewinter, by wild geese and swans, that dig up and ^ the saccharine roots of the plant. The Zostera ofthe warmer latitudes attain to a larger size than thoseof our Scottish seas. A southern species, says Loudon,^^Zostera oceanica, has leaves a foot long and an inch FOSSIL FLORAS OF SCOTLAND. 433 broad. It is used as a thatch, which is said to last acentury; bleaches white wdth exposure; and furnishes therush-like material from which the envelops of Italian liquorflasks are prepared. The simple rectilinear venation ofribbon-like fronds, usually much broken, that occurs in theLower Old Red Sandstone, has often reminded me of thatexhibited by this exotic species of Zostera.] Associated with the earliest ichthyic remains of the OldRed Sandstone, we find vegetable organisms in such abun- Fig rucoiD. dance, that they communicate often a fissile character tothe stone in which they occur. But, existing as merecarbonaceous markings, their state of keeping is usuallyso bad, that they tell us little else than that the antiquely-37 434 ON THE LESS KNOWN formed fishes of this remote period swam over sea bottomsdarkened by forests of algae. The prevailmg plant was onefurnished with a long, smooth stem, which, though it threwoff, in the alternate order, numerous branches at least halfas stout as itself, preserved its thickness for considerabledistances without diminution, — a common fucoidal charac-teristic. We find its remains mixed in the rock, thoughsparingly, with those of a rough-edged plant, knobbed some-what like the thong-like receptacles of Himanihalia lorea^which also threw off branches like the other, but diminishedmore rapidly. A greatly more minute vegetable organismof the same beds, characterized by its bifid partings, whichstrike off
Size: 1061px × 2357px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, bookpublish, booksubjectcreation
