CHAPTER IV.. Interior of the Boulder--Wide Intervals of

Interior of the boulder--Wide intervals of Geology--Illustration--Long interval between the formation of the boulder as part of a sand-bed, and its striation by glacial action--Sketch of the intervening ages--The boulder a Lower Carboniferous rock--Cycles of the astronomer and the geologist contrasted--Illustration--Plants shown by the boulder once grew green on land--Traces of that ancient land Its seas, shores, forests, and lakes, all productive of material aids to our comfort and power--Plants of the Carboniferous era--Ferns--Tree-ferns--Calamites--Asterophyllites-- Lepidodendron--Lepidostrobus--Stigmaria--Scene in a ruined palace--Sigillaria--Coniferæ, Cycadeæ--Antholites, the oldest known flower--Grade of the Carboniferous flora--Its resemblance to that of New Zealand,