“Is it for thee, the lark ascends and sings? Joy tunes his voice, joy elevates his wings. Is it for thee, the linnet pours his throat? Loves of his own, and raptures swell the note. Is thine alone, the seed that strews the plain? The birds of Heaven shall vindicate their grain.” 6. And in the Flora which then decked the plains, fringed the marshes, or clothed the heights, “the birds of heaven” had ample provision in seed, fruit, and herbage for all their wants. Remarkable indeed the adaptation of the animal tribes referred to in the previous section to the lacustrine condition of the surface which still so generally prevailed. The plants of the period are such as are now exclusively confined to warm or tropical latitudes. The palms and cocoa-nut bearing trees are abundant and of different kinds. One family belongs to the _Nipadites_, which are found in Japan and the Spice Islands, generally in the estuaries of rivers, or along the tracts of damp marshy grounds. The lovely Acacia was here naturalized. Pepper, dates, and cucumbers added to the variety of the sylvan banquet, which tall branching pines shaded from the scorching heat. If we are no longer in possession of the luxurious fruits and condiment-bearing plants of this early age, the change has led to other and better productions. For deep lakes we have these verdant meadows and corn plains; the stagnant marshes are drained of their mephitic vapors; the theroid monsters are supplanted by the laboring ox and the industrial horse; and with all the arts flourishing, and carried to the highest pitch along her borders, the proudest achievements of science wafted on her bosom—the “fruitful Thame” may challenge the nations of the earth for every product which climate yields or genial suns ripen.