. The testimony of the rocks; . ck 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
. The testimony of the rocks; . ck 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, — fernsand their allies. There occurs, however, just beyond thefirst group of club mosses, — a remarkable exception in asohtary pine, — the advance guard of one of the ancient Fig. PiNUS SYLVESTRis. (Scotch Fir.) forests of the country, which may be seen far in the back,ground, clothing with its shaggy covering of deep greenthe lower hill-slopes. And as we found in the Thallogens of6* 54 THE PAL^ONTOLOGICAL that littoral zone over wliich we have just passed, represent-atives of the marine flora of the Silurian System, from thefirst appearance of organisms in its nether beds, to its bone-bed of the Upper Ludlow rocks, in which the Lycopoditesfirst appear, so in the Acrogens of that moor, with itssolitary coniferous tree, we may recognize an equallystriking representative of the terrestrial flora which existe:.during the deposition of these Ludlow rocks, and of thevarious formations of the Old Red Sandstone, Lower,Middle, and Upper. In the upper beds of tho IJpper Silurian, as has beenalready remarked, Lycopodites -e the only terrestrial plantsyet found. In the LoAver Old Red Sandstone we find addedto these, with Thallogens that bea
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