CHAPTER XVIII.
Proofs of design in the Structure of Fossil Vegetables.
SECTION I.
GENERAL HISTORY OF FOSSIL VEGETABLES.
The history of Fossil Vegetables has a twofold claim upon, our consideration, in relation to the object of our present inquiry. The first regards the influence exerted on the actual condition of Mankind, by the fossil carbonaceous remains of Plants, which clothed the former surface of the Earth, and has been briefly considered in a former chapter; (Chap. VII. p. 57.) the second directs our attention to the history and structure of the ancient members of the vegetable kingdom.
It appears that nearly at the same points in the progress of stratification, where the most striking changes take place in the remains of Animal life, there are found also concurrent changes in the character of fossil Vegetables.
A large and new field of investigation is thus laid open to our inquiry, wherein we may compare the laws which regulated the varying systems of vegetation, on the earlier surfaces of our earth, with those which actually prevail. Should it result from this inquiry, that the families which make up our fossil Flora were formed on Principles, either identical with those that regulate the development of existing plants, or so closely allied to them, as to form connected parts of one and the same great system of laws, for the universal regulation of organic life, we shall add another link to the chain of arguments which we extract from the interior of the Earth, in proof of the Unity of the Intelligence
