. The testimony of the rocks; . t it contains noLepidodendra,—no Ulodendra,—no Sigillaria,—no Favu, 72 THE PALiEONTOLOGICAL laria, — no Knorria or Halonia. Those monsters of the vegetable world that united to the forms of its humbler produc-tions the bulk of trees, had, with the solitary exception ofthe Calamites, passed into extinction ; and ere the close ofthe system they too had disappeared. The forms borne bymost of the Oolitic plants were comparatively familiar ^ith the Acrogens and Gymnogens we find the first indica-don of the Liliaceae, or lily-like plants,— of plants, too,allied
. The testimony of the rocks; . t it contains noLepidodendra,—no Ulodendra,—no Sigillaria,—no Favu, 72 THE PALiEONTOLOGICAL laria, — no Knorria or Halonia. Those monsters of the vegetable world that united to the forms of its humbler produc-tions the bulk of trees, had, with the solitary exception ofthe Calamites, passed into extinction ; and ere the close ofthe system they too had disappeared. The forms borne bymost of the Oolitic plants were comparatively familiar ^ith the Acrogens and Gymnogens we find the first indica-don of the Liliaceae, or lily-like plants,— of plants, too,allied to the Pandanaceae or screw pines, the fruits of whichare sometimes preserved in a wonderfully perfect state ofkeeping in the Inferior Oolite, together with Carpolithes,—palm-like fruits, very ornately sculptured,— and the remainsof at least one other monocotyledon, that bears the some-what general name of an Endogenite. With these thereoccur a few disputed leaves, which I must persist in regard-rig. 39. Fig. CARPOIITHES CONICA. CARPOLITHES BUCKLANDII.* (Reduced one third.) irtt; as dicotyledonous. But they formed, whatever theirtrue character, a very inconspicuous feature in the OoUtic ^ No true fossil palms have yet been detected in the great Oolitic andWealden systems, though they certainly occur in the Carboniferous andPermian rocks, and are comparatively common in the earlier and middleTertiary formations. Much cannot be founded on merely negative evidence ;but it would be certainly a curious circumstance should it be found thatthis graceful family, first ushered into being some time in the later Palaeo-zoic periods, was withdrawn from creation during ages of theearths history, to be again introduced in greatly more than the earlier pro-portions during the Tertiaiy and recent periods. HISTORY OF PLANTS. 73 flora; and not until the overlying Cretaceous System isushered in do we find leaves in any considerable quantitydecidedly of this high fam
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