. The geological history of plants. Paleobotany; 1888. THE CAKBONIFEROUS FLORA. Ill There is something very striking in this succession of a new plant world without any material advance. It is like passing in the modern world from one district to another, in which we see the same forms of life, only represented by distinct though allied species. Thus, when the voyager crosses the Atlantic from Europe to Amer- ica, he meets with pines, oaks, birches, poplars, and beeches of the same genera with those he had left behind ; but the species are distinct. It is somethin'g Hke this that meets us in o
. The geological history of plants. Paleobotany; 1888. THE CAKBONIFEROUS FLORA. Ill There is something very striking in this succession of a new plant world without any material advance. It is like passing in the modern world from one district to another, in which we see the same forms of life, only represented by distinct though allied species. Thus, when the voyager crosses the Atlantic from Europe to Amer- ica, he meets with pines, oaks, birches, poplars, and beeches of the same genera with those he had left behind ; but the species are distinct. It is somethin'g Hke this that meets us in our as- cent into the Carbonif- erous world of plants. Yet we know that this is a succession in time, that aU our old Erian friends are dead and buried long ago, and that these are new forms lately introduced (Fig. 32). Conveying ourselves, then, in imagination for- ward to the time when our greatest accumula- tions of coal were formed, and fancying that we are introduced to the Ameri- can or European continent of that period, we find our- selves in a new and strange world. In the Devonian age, and even in the succeeding Lower Carboniferous, there was in the interior of America a wide inland sea, with forest belts clinging to its sides or clothing its isl- ands. But in the coal period this inland sea had given. a h c d ef g Fig. 32. —Foliage from the coal-fbi^ mation. a, Alethopterie lonehiiica, fern (Moose Eiver). i, Sphmophyl- him ScMotkeimm (Piotou). c, I^i- dodmdron hinerve (Sydney), d, As- terophylUtes foUota (!) (Sydney), e, Cordmtes (Joggins). /, Mewrop- tena rannervis, fern (Sydney). g. Odontopteria avheuneata, fern (Sydney).. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Dawson, John William, Sir, 1820-1899. New York, D. Appleton and Company
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