. The testimony of the rocks; . ALTINGIA EXCELSA. Norfolk Island Pine. (Young Specimen.) ferns and numerous coniferous trees of the Coal Measures,known objects by which to conceive of some of the moreprominent features of the flora of which they composed solarge a part. We have not inadequate conceptions of atonce the giants of its forests and the green swathe of itsplains and hill-sides, — of its mighty trees and its dwarfunderwood^ — of its cedars of Lebanon, so to speak, and itshyssop of the wall. But of an intermediate class we have 60 THE PALiEONTOLOGICAL Fig. 21.,. no existing representa
. The testimony of the rocks; . ALTINGIA EXCELSA. Norfolk Island Pine. (Young Specimen.) ferns and numerous coniferous trees of the Coal Measures,known objects by which to conceive of some of the moreprominent features of the flora of which they composed solarge a part. We have not inadequate conceptions of atonce the giants of its forests and the green swathe of itsplains and hill-sides, — of its mighty trees and its dwarfunderwood^ — of its cedars of Lebanon, so to speak, and itshyssop of the wall. But of an intermediate class we have 60 THE PALiEONTOLOGICAL Fig. 21.,. no existing representatives; and in this class the fossil botanist finds puzzles and en-igmas with which hitherto atleast he has been able to dealwith only indifferent is a view, however, suf-ficiently simple, which may befound somewhat to lessen, ifnot altogether remove, the dif-ficulty. INature does not dwellwillingly in mediocrity; andso in aU ages she as certainlyproduced trees, or plants oftree-like proportions and bulk,as she did minute shrubs andherbs. In not a few of theexisting orders and families,such as the Rosaceae, the Le-guminosae, the Myrtacese, andmany others, we have plantsof all sizes, from the creeping Fig. 22,
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