d it consisted only of low and imperfect vegetables, there might
have been much less difficulty in admitting its probability. Farther,
we find that even in the Carboniferous period scarcely any plants of
the higher orders flourished, and there was a preponderance of the
lower forms of the vegetable kingdom. We have, however, in geological
chronology, many illustrations of the fact that the progress of
improvement has not been continuous or uninterrupted, and that the
preservation of the flora and fauna of many geological periods has
been very imperfect. Hence the occurrence in one particular stratum or
group of strata of few or low representatives of animal and vegetable
life affords no proof that a better state of things may not have
existed previously. We also find, in the case of animals, that each
tribe attained to its highest development at the time when, in the
progress of creation, it occupied the summit of the scale of life.
Analogy would thus lead us to believe that when plants alone existed,
they may have assumed nobler forms than any now existing, or that
tribes now represented by few and humble species may at that time have
been so great in numbers and development as to fill all the offices of
our present complicated flora, as well as, perhaps, some of those now
occupied by animals. We have this principle exemplified in the
Carboniferous flora, by the magnitude of its arborescent club-mosses,
and the vast variety of its gymnosperms. For this reason we may
anticipate that if any remains of this early plant-creation should be
disinterred, they will prove to be among the most wonderful and
interesting geological relics ever discovered, and will enlarge our
views of the compass and capabilities of the vegetable kingdom, and
especially of its lower forms.

A farther objection is the uselessness of the existence of plants for
a long period, without any animals to subsist on or enjoy them, and
even without forming any accumulation of fossil fuel or other products
useful to man. The only direct answer to this has already been given.
The previous existence of plants may have been, and probably was,
essential to the comfort and subsistence of the animals afterwards
introduced. Independently of this, however, we have an analogous case
in the geological history of animals, which prevents this fact from
standing alone. Why was the earth tenanted so long by the inferior
races of animals, and why were so much skill and con