. The testimony of the rocks; . donous tree, not lower in the scalethan the araucarites of the Coal Measures, — which instructure it greatly resembles, — or than the pines or cedarsof our own times (see Fig. 3). In the Middle Old RedSandstone there occurs, with plants representative apparentlyof the ferns and their allies, a somewhat equivocal and doubt-ful organism, which may have been the panicle or compoundfiuit of some aquatic rush; while in the Upper Old Red,just ere the gorgeous flora of the Coal Measures began tobe, there existed in considerable abundance a stately fern,the Gydopteris H
. The testimony of the rocks; . donous tree, not lower in the scalethan the araucarites of the Coal Measures, — which instructure it greatly resembles, — or than the pines or cedarsof our own times (see Fig. 3). In the Middle Old RedSandstone there occurs, with plants representative apparentlyof the ferns and their allies, a somewhat equivocal and doubt-ful organism, which may have been the panicle or compoundfiuit of some aquatic rush; while in the Upper Old Red,just ere the gorgeous flora of the Coal Measures began tobe, there existed in considerable abundance a stately fern,the Gydopteris Hihernicus (see Fig. 2), of mayhap notsmaller proportions than our monarch of the British ferns,Osmu7ida regalis^ associated with a peculiar lepidodendron,and what seems to be a lepidostrobus, — possibly the fruc-tiferous spike or cone of the latter, mingled with carbona- HISTORY OF PLANTS. 55 ceous steins, which, in the simplicity of their texture, andtheir abundance, give evidence of a low but not scanty Fi. 11. Fig. CALAMITE ? Of the Lower Old Eed Sandstone. Shetland. (One eighth nat. size.) - LTCOPODITE ? Of the Lower Old Red Sandstone. Thurso. (ilag. two diameters.) vegetation. Ere passing to the luxuriant carboniferousflora, I shall make but one other remark. The existingplants whence we derive our analogies in dealing ^vit]l thevegetation of this early period, contribute but little, if at all,to the support of animal life. The ferns and their alliesremain untouched by the grazing animals. Our native clubmosses, though once used in medicine, are positively dele- 56 THE PAL^ONTOLOGICAL terious ; the horse tails, though harmless, so abound in silex,which wraps them round with a cuticle of stone, that theyare rarely cropped by cattle; while the thickets of fern Fig. 13.
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