We must leave the discussion of the probable length, and other matter connected with this great day, till our next chapter. We may then speak of its immense rivers, colossal trees, and club mosses of the Devonian era.

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CHAPTER IV.

THE PRIMEVAL FORESTS.

The

It is now our purpose to trace the progress of creation during the latter part of the third creative day. In our last chapter we discoursed on the upheaval of "dry land,” which event occupied the former part of this period. same day of creation that saw dry land emerge from the deep, saw it clothed with vegetation. Doubtless the first emerging portions received their vegetable tenants as they became adapted for them, and each additional country as it rose above the waters became fitted to receive the plants for which it was designed. Hence the latter part of this day was evidently remarkable for its gorgeous and extensive flora; thus agreeing with the Mosaic account of creation. For then God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth, and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit whose seed was in itself after his kind. And God saw that it was good." Gen. i, 11. Dr. Dawson has shown in his Archaia that the word deshe is improperly rendered

grass in our version : "For grass bears seed, and is consequently a member of the second class of plants mentioned." For this, and for other reasons there advanced, he concludes that the word "means those plants, mostly small and herbaceous, which bear no proper seeds, in other words the Cryptogamia, as fungi, mosses, lichens, ferns," &c.* Hence the Doctor translates the verse, "Let the earth bring forth tender herb, the herb bearing seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit," &c.; and we know it is frequently so rendered in the Scriptures, as in Job xxxviii. 27, "To cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth :" Deut. xxxii. 2, "As the small rain upon the tender herb." Many other examples can be adduced where deshe is rendered tender herb. The remaining words are translated with tolerable accuracy in our version. They mean seed-bearing, or phanerogamous herbs and trees. This three-fold division of vegetation into seedless, seed bearing, and fruit bearing, differs somewhat from modern botanical classification, in that it separates seed-bearing herbs from fruit-bearing trees. They are now commonly classified as one, under the name of Spermocarps, which means, literally, fruit seeded; including herbs and trees whose seeds contain an embryo, in which the rudiments of the future plants are distinguishable. But Moses did not intend to give a botanical classification; but to give the order of creation. And hence we are to understand that the three classes of plants that sprang from the earth during the third day, corresponded with the order stated. The expression, "After his kind whose seed is in itself," contains a very important truth. It shows that each species of plant descended from its own kind. By this we do not mean tha no new species Archaia, page 162.

of plant has been created since the carboniferous era, or that none have been extinct; for if we believe the testimony of the rocks, plants existed in Cambrian and in Silurian seas, all, or nearly all of which became extinct during the coal formation. We mean that every species has propagated only its own kind, thus affording no support to Mr. Darwin's development theory, which is that "all things living have much in common in their chemical composition, their germinal vesicles, their cellular structure; and their laws of growth and reproduction are so similar that analogy leads us to believe that all animals and plants have descended from one primordial being." But we affirm that both science and Scripture are openly antagonistic to this theory. When we read that the earth brought forth "herb yielding seed after his kind, and tree yielding fruit whose seed was in itself after his kind," it confirms the fact patent to all that like produces like in vegetable as well as in animal nature. Therefore the kinds are fixed, and do not run one into another, nor does one develop another. We think, also, the text opposes the theory which says, "that plants and trees were created full grown in a moment." Certainly the Almighty could do this, but does the text warrant such a conclusion? We think it rather indicates that the seeds, germs, or roots only were created in a moment; for, "the earth brought forth grass," &c.; or it means, "and the earth sprouted forth," &c. If then the earth put forth grass and herbage green, it cannot mean that God created them full grown. Had it been said that God created them, and not that the earth brought them forth, such a supposition would have been natural; hence we conclude that the seeds were

"'em

created in the earth, and that the plants came to maturity, according to physical laws; and there is nothing in Scripture adverse to this interpretation; while Geologians say that the Carboniferous flora was at first sparing and scanty, but increased in size and extent as time advanced, until the luxuriant vegetation of the coal formation was developed. This period, says Hugh Miller, was phatically the period of plants, of 'herbs yielding seed after their kind.' In no other age did the world ever witness such a flora; the youth of the earth was peculiarly a youth of dark and tangled forests; of huge pines and stately araucarians; of the reed-like Calamites, the tall tree fern, the sculptured Sigillaria, and the hirsute Lepidodendron, wherever dry land, or shallow lake, or running stream appeared. From where Melville Island now spreads out its ice waters under the star of the pole, to where the arid plains of Australia lie solitary beneath the bright cross of the South, a rank and luxuriant herbage cumbered every foot-breadth of the dark and steaming soil; and even to distant planets our earth must have shone through the enveloping cloud with a green and delicate ray." It is quite possible to identify the coal measure with the vegetation of the third day. That coal is the result of the mineralization of vegetable remains is abundantly proved by the numerous impressions of plants found in connection with it, and by the traces of organization which it still presents. The vegetable remains found in this carbonised matter, show that the three classes of vegetation then growing on the earth can be represented by the text of Moses.

In Genesis we read of three classes of vegetation. The

*Testimony of the Rocks, page 136.