The nearest approach to the climate and vegetation proper to the geological period which now occupies our attention, would probably be found in certain islands, or on the littoral of the Pacific Ocean--the island of Chloë, for example, where it rains during 300 days in the year, and where the light of the sun is shut out by perpetual fogs; where arborescent Ferns form forests, beneath whose shade grow herbaceous Ferns, which rise three feet and upwards above a marshy soil; which gives shelter also to a mass of cryptogamic plants, greatly resembling, in its main features, the flora of the Coal-measures. This flora was, as we have said, uniform and poor in its botanic genera, compared to the abundance and variety of the flora of the present time; but the few families of plants, which existed then, included many more species than are now produced in the same countries. The fossil Ferns of the coal-series in Europe, for instance, comprehend about 300 species, while all Europe now only produces fifty. The gymnosperms, which now muster only twenty-five species in Europe, then numbered more than 120. It will simplify the classification of the flora of the Carboniferous epoch if we give a tabular arrangement adopted by the best authorities:-- Dr. Lindley. Brongniart. I. Thallogens { Cryptogamous Amphigens, } Lichens, Sea-weeds, Fungi. { or Cellular Cryptogams } II. Acrogens Cryptogamous Acrogens { Club-mosses, Equiseta, Ferns, { Lycopods, Lepidodendra. III. Gymnogens Dicotyledonous Gymnosperms Conifers and Cycads. { Compositæ, Leguminosæ, Umbel- IV. Exogens Dicotyledonous Angiosperms { liferæ, Cruciferæ, Heaths. { All European except Conifers. V. Endogens Monocotyledons { Palms, Lilies, Aloes, Rushes, { Grasses.