"Organized fossil remains belong to three different classes: the remains that have preserved their natural state, at least in part; petrifactions; and impressions.
"The remains of the first class are principally bones, and even entire skeletons, which, after having been stripped of the skin and flesh that covered them, have remained, some buried in the earth, others hidden in deep caverns. They are, sometimes, calcined in whole or in part, without having lost their configuration; they at others preserve, not only their texture, but even some traces of their hair and skin. They are also occasionally seen covered with a calcareous crust.
"Petrifactions, to use this word in its familiar sense, include all stony bodies that have the figure of an organized body. There are cases in which a strong solution has penetrated into a cavity formed by an organic body that has disappeared. Then the strong substance has occupied the cavity that has been left empty, and has taken the external form of the body that formerly existed there. If this body were, for instance, a branch or trunk of a tree, the stone will have at its surface its knots and asperities; but within, it will present all the characters of a true stone; it will be no more, to use the language of Hauy, than the statue of the substance that it has replaced.
"At other times, a vegetable or animal substance, while undergoing decomposition in a successive manner, and by obvious degrees, is pressed by the petrifying liquid that already surrounds it. As soon as an organic particle has disappeared, its place is occupied by one of stone."
"Metallized bodies, and those which have been changed into bitumen or carbon, belong to this system of formation; thus, the turquoises, for instance, are the teeth of a great marine animal; a metallic substance has penetrated them, and has gradually replaced the softer parts of the bones.
"Impressions are often found between the plates of slaty rocks; they are relievos or intaglios representing the skeletons of animals, particularly fish, leaves, seeds, and entire plants, of which the most common kind belong to the forus."
The impressions of vegetables are most abundant in the shales that accompany coal formations; those of leaves and branches are the most common, but there are a few instances in which they retain the delicate structure of the flowers. All analogy leads to the inference, that those now found in temperate climates, are of such a character as could only exist in tropical regions; and when, as in some of the newer formations, the species are identical with those which now exist, the living type is only found within the torrid zone. A still more curious fact, is their identity in similar formations in different parts of the world. At the present day, the same soil in Pennsylvania and England produces plants of very different characters, and those which are native to each are of wholly distinct genera and species, while the fossils that accompany the coal in the two countries are precisely similar. But even those brought by Parry from the polar region of Melville island, are identical with those of England, and of course with those of this distant part of the same hemisphere in which the former are formed, although the character of the climate is so diverse. At the epoch of the coal formation, there existed plants, of genera, which, in temperate climates, at present rarely rise to more than a few inches in height, and which were at that remote period of enormous size. Thus, the forus must have attained the height of from fifty to sixty feet. At present, the forus assume the size of a tree only in the very warmest climates, and even there, are far inferior in magnitude to those of the coal formation. Now, it is well known, that the large size of the living species is due to great and constant heat, and copious moisture. Hence we may fairly infer that similar circumstances existed even at Melville island, where, at the present time, for the greater part of the year, the thermometer is below the freezing point.
As further instances of the same kind, we may quote the following facts. Faujas St. Fond found, in a marly slate, covered by lava, in France, the tree cotton, the liquid amber styrax, the cassia fistula, and other plants of tropical regions. The same observer found the fruit of the arcea palm near Cologne. The elastic bitumen of Derbyshire in England, is identical with the caoutchouc, which now grows only in the warmer parts of South America; and the amber of Prussia appears to be a fossil gum, similar to the Copal.
Among the more recent in formation of fossil vegetables, are the bituminized woods; these are often buried to great depths by diluvian action, but are never found in perfect rock. The most remarkable instance of this kind is at Bovey-Heathfield, in England, and beneath is found the retinasphaltum, that seems to be no more than the expressed viscorous juice of the trees. Coal is a similar formation, but due to a more ancient period. The mines of Pennsylvania occasionally furnish specimens, in which the fibre of the wood is as distinctly visible as in recently prepared charcoal. However these vast beds may have been formed, no doubt whatever can exist in respect to their vegetable origin.