critics (_Edinburgh Review_ for July) demurs, asserting that the
carboniferous epoch shows a gorgeous _flora_--that the first fruits of
vegetable nature were not rude, ill-fashioned forms, but in magnificence
and complexity of structure equal to any living types, and that the
forest approached the rank and complicated display of a tropical jungle,
where the prevalence of great heat with great moisture, combined with
the fact that the atmosphere contained a greater proportion of the
natural food of plants, must undoubtedly have forcibly stimulated
vegetation, and in quantity and luxuriance of growth, if not fineness of
organization, produced it in rich abundance. The earth, it is likely,
was one vast forest, which would perform a most important part for the
good of its future inhabitants, helping to purge the air of its excess
of carbonic acid, by which the earth's surface would be prepared for its
new occupants.

The animal remains of this era are not numerous in comparison with those
that go before or follow. Contrary to what the author of the _Vestiges_
supposes (p. 111), insects were already buzzing in the air; there were,
however, no crawling reptiles on the ground, and it is a doubtful point
whether birds cheered the ancient forests with their song. But fishes
reached their most perfect organic type. They were the lords of
creation, and had a structure in conformity with their high office.
Since then the class has increased in its species, but has degenerated
to a less noble type.

In the next formation, the New Red Sandstone, reptiles make their
appearance. They are considered next to fishes in the zoological scale.
So nearly are they sometimes connected, that it is doubtful to which
class they belong. Many reptiles are also amphibious, adapted either to
water or land. The surface of the globe abounded in large flat, muddy