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Table of Contents

PART I.

FOSSIL FLORA.

Plates I. to XXXIII. inclusive.

Plate I.

PLATE I.

(Plates I. to IX. inclusive are from Parkinson's Organic Remains.)

Fossil Woods and Leaves.

Fig. 1. Fossil coniferous wood, from a bed of clay at Blackwall. This wood is simply bituminized, and has undergone no other mineral transmutation; it is in the usual condition of wood in peat-bogs.

Fig. 2. A piece of bituminous wood, containing Mellite, or Honey-stone (honigstein of Werner), the yellow crystallized substance in the middle of the specimen. It is a fossil resin, allied to amber: from Thuringia.

Fig. 3. Carbonized coniferous wood, from the so-called "Bovey Coal" formation of Devonshire.

Fig, 4. A piece of calcareous wood, showing very distinctly the ligneous structure on the surface.

Fig. 5. Lignite, or carbonized wood, in clay; the cracks or fissures in the wood are filled up with white calcareous spar. Specimens of this kind are common in many argillaceous strata, as well as in limestone.

Fig. 6. A fragment of shale, covered with the imprints of the leaf-stalks that have been shed. It is a species of Lepidodendron. See description of Plate XXVI.

Fig. 7. This fossil vegetable is part of the stem of a tree; and possibly of a species of Sigillaria.

Fig. 8. Portion of a nodule of ironstone, enclosing some pinnules or leaflets of a beautiful fern (Neuropteris): from Coalbrook Dale, Shropshire.

Plate II.

PLATE II.

Petrified Woods.

Fig. 1. Silicified bituminized wood; probably from New Holland.

Fig. 2. Silicified root of a coniferous tree, (Rhizolithes, of the early collectors,) "resembling in structure that of the larch."—Mr. Parkinson.

Fig. 3. A similar example of silicified bituminous wood, or root.

Fig. 4. Fossil coniferous wood, a longitudinal section.

Fig. 5. Another section of the same fossil wood.

Fig. 6. "Petrified larch-tree," from Mount Krappe in Hungary.

Fig. 7. Silicified bituminous wood.

Fig. 8. "Jasperized wood, resembling in structure that of the hazel."—Mr. Parkinson.

Fig. 9. Silicified coniferous wood; apparently a dried and withered mass, before it underwent petrifaction.

Fig. 10. Silicified wood, having a cavity lined with mammillated chalcedony; appearing as if the silex had percolated through the substance of the mass, and had slowly oozed into the hollow.

Fig. 11. Silicified bituminous wood. In this specimen the siliceous matter occurs in yellow semi-pellucid globules; the colour is supposed to have been derived from the bitumen.

The silicified woods delineated above, belong to the division which Mr. Parkinson denominated opaline; he conceived their peculiar characters to have resulted from an infiltration of fluid silex into the ligneous tissue, which, having previously undergone bituminization, was in a permeable state; hence originated the conchoidal fracture and peculiar resinous lustre which these specimens exhibit.

The specimen, fig. 7, Mr. Parkinson describes as corroborating the opinion that the ligneous tissues were converted into a bituminous substance, and subsequently impregnated with siliceous matter. "In that fossil there is a knot of wood which differs not the least in appearance from that in a recent piece, but it is perfectly impregnated with opaline silex. Is it possible that the change this knot has suffered could have been effected by an abstraction of the greater part or of the whole of its constituent molecules, and a substitution of particles of a different nature? Its hardness and closeness of texture oppose an insuperable bar to the supposition: whilst the mysteriousness of the change is entirely dispelled by admitting of the softening operation of bituminization, and consequent admission of silex in a fluid state."—Mr. Parkinson.

Plate III.

PLATE III.

Petrified Stems and Leaves.

Fig. 1. A portion of the trunk of the fossil vegetable called Stigmaria ficoides (of M. Alex. Brongniart); it is the root of a tree common in the coal deposits; see Supplementary Notes, Art. Stigmaria, p. 198, for a description of the nature and mode of occurrence of these fossils.

Fig. 2. Impressions of dicotyledonous leaves in travertine; a modern calcareous deposit; from Campania.[8]

[8] Medals of Creation, vol. i. p. 193.

Fig. 3. Part of the stem of a reed-like plant (Calamites dubius, Brongniart); from the coal deposits of Yorkshire. See description of Calamites.

Fig. 4. Appears to be a fragment of the stem of a species of Lepidodendron.

Fig. 5. Fragment of the leaf of a Cycadeous plant, from the oolite of Stonesfield. (Zamia pectinata.)

Fig. 6. Portion of an ironstone nodule, split asunder, showing part of the terminal branch of a Lepidodendron, from Coalbrook Dale. See description of Lepidodendron.

Fig. 7. "A pebble that appears to have been partly enveloped in a leaf while in a soft state, which has produced the markings on its surface."—Mr. Parkinson.

Fig. 8. "Ligniform pitchstone;" fossil wood having a resinous transparency; supposed by Mr. Parkinson to have originated from an intermixture of silex and bitumen; the internal part is opalized.

Fig. 9. Fragment of calcareous coniferous wood from the Lias of Charmouth, Dorsetshire: the vegetable structure is well preserved.

Plate IV.

PLATE IV.

Fossil Fern Leaves.

Figs. 1, & 2. An ironstone nodule, split asunder, showing an inclosed fern-leaf (Alethopteris lonchitidis, of Sternberg); from the coal-beds of Newcastle.

Figs. 3, & 4. The corresponding parts of another nodule, containing a fern-leaf of a different kind (Neuropteris).

Fig. 5. A very beautiful fossil fern (Cheilanthes microlobus, of Göppert; Sphenopteris, of Brongniart); from the coal formation.

Fig. 6. A slab of coal-shale with fronds of ferns (Alethopteris Serlii, of Göppert); from Dunkerton.

Fig. 7. A beautiful fern (Pecopteris) in coal-shale; from Newcastle.

Plate V.

PLATE V.

Fossil Ferns and Stems.

Fig. 1. A beautiful delicate plant, belonging to a family of which numerous species occur in the coal deposits; named, from the stellular form of the foliage, Asterophyllites.

Fig. 2. A fern in coal-shale, from Yorkshire. (Sphenopteris trifoliata, of Artis.)

Fig. 3. Another species of star-leaf plant (Annularia brevifolia), from the coal of Silesia.

Fig. 4. A dicotyledonous leaf in sandstone, in a beautiful state of preservation; from the tertiary strata of Œningen.

Fig. 5. A frond of a remarkable species of extinct fern (Cyclopteris orbicularis, of Brongniart); from the coal of Shropshire.

Fig. 6. An elegant fern (Pecopteris), from coal shale; Newcastle.

Fig. 7. A delicate plant (Sphenophyllum erosum, vel dentatum, of Sternberg), with wedge-shaped pinnules, from the coal formation.

Fig. 8. Portion of a stem, flattened by compression, of a species of Sigillaria (Sigillaria tesselata, of Brongniart). From the coal of Yorkshire.

Fig. 9. Fern (Pecopteris oreopteridis, of Brongniart); from the coal of South Wales.

Figs. 10, & 11. Two specimens of Asterophyllites in ironstone nodules, from Coalbrook Dale. The white appearance is occasioned by a deposition of hydrate of alumina.

Plate VI.

PLATE VI.

Fossil Fruits from Sheppey.

The greater number of the specimens here figured, are from the London clay of the Isle of Sheppey.[9]

[9] For an account of the circumstances under which fossil fruits, &c. occur in that celebrated locality, see Medals of Creation, vol. ii.

These fossils are strongly impregnated with pyrites (sulphuret of iron), and are liable to decompose after exposure to the air for a few weeks or months, even when placed in closed cabinets: when first found they are remarkably beautiful. An excellent work on the fossil fruits of the Isle of Sheppey, was commenced by J. S. Bowerbank, Esq. F.K.S. of Highbury Grove; but which, it is much to be regretted, was discontinued after only three numbers were published.

Fig. 1. Portion of a branch of a tree, completely mineralized by pyrites; it is the "pyritous fossil wood" of Mr. Parkinson.

Figs. 2, & 3. Vegetable substances, too imperfect to determine.

Figs. 4, 8, 9, & 13. The berries of an extinct genus of plants, (named Wetherellia, by Mr. Bowerbank, in honour of Mr. Wetherell of Highgate,) which, from their appearance when split asunder, are called by the local collectors, "coffee berries." The natural affinities of these fossils are not determined.

Figs. 5, 6, & 7. The fruit or seed-vessel of a palm allied to the recent Nipa, a native of the Molucca Islands; the fossil is therefore named Nipadites.[10] See the next Plate.

[10] Medals of Creation, vol. i. p, 180.

Figs. 10, & 12. Fossil fruits of plants belonging to the Cucumber tribe (hence named Cucumites, by Mr. Bowerbank).[11]

[11] Plate xiii. of Mr. Bowerbank's work on the Fossil Fruits of the London Clay, contains numerous figures of Cucumites.

Fig. 11. A transverse section of Fig. 16.

Figs. 14, 18, 24, & 26, are varieties of Cucumites.

Fig. 16. Calcareous wood from Oxfordshire.

Fig. 19. Wood mineralized by copper (Cupreous fossil-wood of Parkinson), from Souxson, in Siberia.

Fig. 18. Fossil fruit resembling the seed-vessels of plants of the genus Cupania (Amomocarpum, of Brongniart; Cupanoides, of Bowerbank); M. Brongniart considers the original to have been related to the Cardamoms (Amomum).

Fig. 21. Probably a species of Cupanoides.

Figs. 20, & 22. Pericarp of a fruit; its affinities unknown.

Fig. 23. A piece of pyritous wood.

Fig. 25. A rolled specimen of Nipadites.

Figs. 24, & 26. Two fruits of plants of the Cucumber family (Cucumites).

Figs. 27, & 29. Specimens of the stems of a species of extinct Club-moss (Lycopodites squamatus); fossils of this kind are abundant in the pyritous clay of Sheppey.

Fig. 28. A fragment of silicified wood, rounded by attrition; from the gravel-pits at Hackney.

Figs. 15, & 17. I have purposely reserved the description of these fossils for this place, because notwithstanding their close resemblance to the aments or cones of a pine or larch, which led the earlier collectors to regard them as fruits, they do not belong to the vegetable but to the animal kingdom, being the hardened excrementitious contents (Coprolites) of the intestines of the fishes, with whose remains they are associated in the chalk.[12] The specimens figured are from Cherry Hinton, in Cambridgeshire; similar fossils occur in the Chalk and Chalk-marl of Sussex, Kent, &c.

[12] See Medals of Creation, vol. i. p. 432; and Dr. Buckland's Bridgewater Essays, vol. ii. pl. 15.

Plate VII.

PLATE VII.

Fossil Fruits of Palms.

Figs. 1-5. Splendid specimens of one of the most remarkable of the fossil fruits that occur in the London clay of the Isle of Sheppey. The nut in its pericarp or husk is shown in fig. 1, the separate pericarp in fig. 2, and the nut itself in fig. 3. Figs. 4 and 5, represent another beautiful fossil of the same species.

These fossil fruits, which Mr. Parkinson considered as belonging to a species of Cocos, or Cocoa, and M. Brongniart referred to the Pandanus or Screw-pine, Mr. Bowerbank has demonstrated to be closely related to the recent Nipa, or Malucca Palm; a low shrub-like monocotyledonous plant, that inhabits marshy tracts near the mouths of great rivers, particularly where the waters are brackish.

Mr. Bowerbank has figured and described eleven species. The species represented in this plate is distinguished as Nipadites Parkinsonis: M. Brongniart had previously named it Pandanocarpum Parkinsonis.[13]

[13] See an account of an "Excursion to the Isle of Sheppey," Medals of Creation, vol. ii. p. 897.

The following is Mr. Bowerbank's description of these fossils:—

"The fruits of which the group I propose to name Nipadites is composed, are known among the women and children by whom they are usually collected, by the name of 'petrified figs.' The epicarp and endocarp are thin and membranous; the sarcocarp is thick and pulpy, composed of cellular tissue, through which run numerous bundles of vessels. The cells are about the ⁸/₁₀₀th part of an inch in diameter. Nearly in the centre of the pericarp is situated a large seed, which, when broken, is found to be more or less hollow. It is frequently not more than half a line in thickness; but in perfect specimens it presents the appearance of a closely granulated structure, in which small apertures containing carbonaceous matter occasionally occur. The seed in Nipadites Parkinsonis, consists of regular layers of cells radiating from a spot situated near the middle of the seed, and apparently enclosing a central embryo.

"If the habits of the plants which produced these fossil fruits were similar to those of the recent Nipa, it will account for their amazing abundance in the London Clay of the Isle of Sheppey; which formation, from the great variety of fossilized stems and branches, mixed up with asteria, mollusca, and conchifera of numerous marine and fresh-water genera, is strikingly characterized as having been the delta of an immense river, which probably flowed from near the Equator towards the spot where these interesting remains are now deposited."[14]