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[14] History of the Fossil Fruits and Seeds of the London Clay. Van Voorst, London, 1840.

Figs. 6, 7, & 8. Specimens of a seed-vessel, or nut, of an unknown plant, often found in the strata of the coal measures. It is called Trigonocarpum olivæforme, from its general shape. From Leicestershire; it probably belongs to a plant of the Palm family.

Plate VIII.

PLATE VIII.

Petrified Stems and Woods.

Figs. 1-7, represent different sections and parts of some remarkably beautiful and interesting silicified stems of an extinct tribe of plants, related to the arborescent ferns, and which are found in considerable abundance at Chemnitz, near Hillersdorf, in Saxony. The name of Psaronius is given to the genus by M. Cotta.

Figs. 1, 2, 5, 7, are P. helmintholithes; figs. 3, 6, P. asterolithes; figs. 5, 6, 7, are enlarged figures of the transverse sections of some of the vessels forming the vascular tissue.

From the stellular figure produced by transverse sections of the vessels, this fossil wood has received the name of "Staarenstein," or Starry-stone. In the time of Mr. Parkinson, the tubes now known to be the vessels of the vascular tissue, were supposed to have been produced by some boring or parasitical animals.

Fig. 4. Transverse section of a stem of calcareous wood from the Bath oolite.

Figs. 8, & 9. Calcareous fossil wood; the cylindrical cavities have been formed by the depredations of the ligniverous boring mollusk, the Teredo, and are now filled with translucent calcareous spar. This kind of fossil was called "Lapis syringoides" by the early collectors.

Fig. 10. Silicified wood; the perforations are supposed to have been occasioned by the depredations of boring mollusca: the cavities are filled with a white pellucid chalcedony.

Plate IX.

PLATE IX.

Fossil Stems and Seed-vessels.

Fig. 1. The strobilus or cone of an extinct family of plants whose remains are very abundant in the coal strata, and which have largely contributed to the formation of the mineral fuel now become so indispensable to the necessities and luxuries of man. There are several kinds, and although there can be no doubt that they are the seed-vessels of the Lepidodendra with which they are associated, yet but few species are identified with their parent trees. The specimen figured is the Lepidostrobus ornatus of Lindley and Hutton. From the coal measures of Coalbrook Dale.

Fig. 2. One of the so-called "Petrified Melons" of Mount Carmel.

Figs. 3 & 4. An unknown fossil body; possibly a coral.

Fig. 5. A vertical section of one of the "Petrified Melons" from Mount Carmel. The fossil thus named by Mr. Parkinson appears to be merely a siliceous nodule, having a cavity lined with quartz crystals. There is, however, a legend rife among the barefooted friars of Mount Carmel, that has conferred a celebrity on these stones; it runs, that "on this spot was a garden well stocked with melons, and that the prophet Elias, who founded the monastery, once asking the gardener for one of his melons, he with churlish humour answered, they were not melons but stones: on which they were immediately changed into stones, and so remain to this day."

Figs. 6 & 7. Unknown vegetable fossils, highly metallic; fig. 6 appears to be a fragment of a cone.

Figs. 8 & 9, are nodules of pyrites, accidentally assuming the form of fungi; they are not fossils, but simply masses of inorganic mineral matter.

Fig. 10. Portion of the flattened stem of an extinct plant, from the coal measures of Yorkshire, whose affinities are uncertain; supposed to resemble the Yew-tree. It appears to be similar to the fossil named Knorria taxina by Messrs. Lindley and Hutton in the British Fossil Flora. In that beautiful work,—the continuation of which is much to be desired,—the genus Knorria comprises those fossil stems in which the projecting scars of the petioles are densely arranged in a spiral manner.[15]

[15] Medals of Creation, vol. i. p. 161.

Plate X.

PLATE X.

(Plates X. to XXXIV. inclusive, are from Artis's work on the Fossil Remains of Plants, from the coal formations of Great Britain.)

"Columnar Hydatica."

Under the name Hydatica, Mr. Artis has described two species of fossil plants, from the coal-mine near Wentworth, Yorkshire. The originals appear to have been aquatic plants, having a horizontal or creeping stem, sending up slender branches, which floated by their leaves on the surface of the water.

The generic characters are, "Stem, arborescent, jointed, branched; leaves, long, linear."

In the arrangements of Schlotheim and Brongniart, who consider only the construction of the leaves, these plants would belong to the genus Poacites.

The species figured is named Hydatica columnaris, or Columnar Hydatica. The stem is branched all the way up, and ends in a club-like head; the branches are numerous, simple, alternate, and covered with parallel hair-like leaves.

Fig. 1. The plant of the natural size, imbedded in coal-shale; fig. 2, a branch magnified, showing; the two linear series in which the leaves are arranged.

Plate XI.

PLATE XI.

"Prostrate Hydatica."

A splendid specimen of another species of Hydatica, spread out on the surface of the coal-shale, as if expanded on the bosom of the lake in which it grew: the length of the original, a part of which only is figured in the plate, was eight feet, five inches.

This species is named by Mr. Artis, Hydatica prostrata. The stem is jointed, and slightly striated; the joints are formed with irregular sutures, whence arise tufts of linear leaves resembling those of our common grasses.

Fragments of this fossil plant are abundant in the roofs of several of the chambers whence the coal has been extracted, in Elsecar Colliery, Yorkshire.

Plate XII.

PLATE XII.

"Slender Myriophyllite."

The fossil here figured seems to approximate very closely to the Hydatica; but Mr. Artis describes the plant under the generic name of Myriophyllites;—M. gracilis. The stem is herbaceous and slender, terminating in a point; it is thickly covered with hair-like leaves.

It was found imbedded horizontally, in detached masses, separated from the great mass of vegetable matter which covers the coal, by an intervening layer of shale. It is rarely met with in the same bed with other vegetables, but generally in solitary and thin strata, taking a horizontal position; so that by riving the shale which contains these plants, numbers of them are disclosed on the same surface. In its general aspect this fossil vegetable resembles the trailing roots of some aquatic plants.

Plate XIII.

PLATE XIII.

"Branched Calamite."

Long and large jointed stems, generally more or less flattened by compression, and bearing some resemblance to a cane or bamboo, are very abundant in the coal formations. Some of them attain many feet in length, and are of a corresponding magnitude in circumference. The original plants are supposed to have been related to the Equisetaceæ, or Mare's-tail, and not to the Bambusiæ, and other arborescent grasses. The stem is jointed, and longitudinally striated, having annular impressions at the articulations.

The present species (Calamites ramosus) has the stem arborescent and branched; the branches are cylindrical, striated, and inserted at the articulations of the trunk; the articulations of the branches are surrounded by a striated disk.

The stem has been found nine feet in length, and occurs both horizontally and vertically, in sandstone, in Leabrook Quarry, near Wentworth.

Plate XIV.

PLATE XIV.

"Doubtful Calamite."

These fossil stems are from the same sandstone quarry as the Calamite delineated in the previous plate.

They differ in some respects from the usual type of the genus, hence the specific name (Calamites dubius). The striæ are narrow, and have a fine groove running down the middle; the fifth or sixth articulation is surrounded by a double line of large globular indentations, one row belonging to each of the connected joints; these imprints have apparently been left by a zone of some organs which surrounded the articulations, and by its pressure left the indented frill, shown in the upper extremity of fig. 2.

These stems are generally found compressed, and from two to three feet in length. Their termination is unknown.

This species is figured by M. Ad. Brongniart in Hist. Veg. Foss. tab. 18, figs. 1-3.

Plate XV.

PLATE XV.

"Pseudo-Bamboo Calamite."

(Calamites pseudo bambusia, of Sternberg. —— Suckovii, of Brongniart, Hist. Foss. Veg. tab. 14.)

"This fossil was found in the clay which fills the fissures of a very fine grit, called by the workmen 'Delf,' that forms a stratum from twenty to twenty-five feet thick, in the quarry at Leabrook, near Wentworth, in Yorkshire. Immediately under this stratum there is a thin bed of very good coal; and at a considerable depth below this bed, there is a second layer of coal, eight feet thick, which is covered in particular places with immense masses of fossil plants."

The species here figured very closely resembles the Bamboos. The stem is arborescent, and marked with parallel linear strife, which are intercepted at the sutures; it is simple and cylindrical, and contracted at the articulations; it occurs five feet or more in length.

Fig. 1, represents part of the middle of a stem.

Fig. 2, shows the gradual upward diminution of the stem, and its pointed termination.

Plate XVI.

PLATE XVI.

"Short-jointed Calamite."

(Calamites approximatus, Sternberg. —— ——, Brongniart, Hist. Veg. Foss. tab. 24.)

This species of Calamite is characterized by the shortness and number of the joints; these are intercepted by distinct articulations, and have small compressed tubercles, forming a studded row round the trunk. The articulations are about one-fifth the diameter of the stem apart. The tubercular studs, or warts, are probably the cicatrices of fallen leaves; they rise directly from the articulations, and not from the lower termination of the striæ, as in the species figured in the next plate.

The specimen was found imbedded horizontally in soft sandstone, at the bottom of the rock in Hober Quarry, near Wentworth.

Fig. 1, represents a portion of the upper part of the trunk, of the natural size, terminating at the top in a sharp compressed point.

Fig. 2. An outline on a reduced scale, to show the proportionate size of the stem.

Plate XVII.

PLATE XVII.

"Ornamented Calamite."

(Calamites decoratus, Artis. —— ——, of Brongniart, Hist. Veg. Foss. tab. 14, figs. 1-5.)

In this species of Calamite the joints are short, and decrease in length towards the summit, where they terminate in an enlarged rounded head. The striæ are ornamented with tubercles at the bottom, close to the articulation. The striæ are broader, and the tubercles larger, towards the summit.

The stem is sometimes found two feet long, and from two to four inches in diameter.

The situation of the tubercles at the lower extremity of the striæ, is a striking feature of this species; and the termination of the summit of the stem is remarkable for its obtuseness.

The specimen is from Leabrook Quarry, Yorkshire.

Plate XVIII.

PLATE XVIII.

"Transverse Sternbergia."

(Sternbergia transversa, of Artis. Artesia ——, of Presl. Additions to Sternberg's Flora der Vorwelt.)

The stems known by the name of Sternbergia, (from Count Sternberg, the author of the Fossil Flora,) appear to be related to the Yucca, or to the Pandanus or Screw-pine.

Mr. Artis observes, that they bear considerable analogy to the stems of the Stapeliæ of our gardens; but still, the external form, which Is the only character visible, does not furnish sufficient ground for their being positively referred to that genus. The stem is marked longitudinally with double keels or ridges, which terminate at different heights spirally round the stem, and have small tubercles at their terminations. There are likewise slight annular depressions, mostly distinct, but in some places two or more unite.

The stem is straight, simple, and cylindrical, and is compressed towards the summit. It is sometimes found six feet in length, and from one to four inches in diameter. It is generally coated with a carbonized bark.

Fig. 1, shows a portion of the stem of the natural size.

Fig. 2. The upper extremity, in which the tubercular terminations of the double keels or ridges are seen at A, B.

Found associated with Calamites in the clay-bind of Leabrook Quarry.

Plate XIX.

PLATE XIX.

"Fibrous Sigillaria."

(Rhytidolepis fibrosa, of Artis.)

Stems more or less flattened, with the external surface longitudinally furrowed, and uniformly ornamented with rows of deeply imprinted symmetrical figures, disposed with much regularity, are among the most abundant vegetable remains in the coal formation. These are named Sigillariæ, from the Latin word sigillum, signifying a seal, in allusion to the extreme regularity of the imprints on the surface. When found in an upright position, at right angles to the plane of the stratum, the original cylindrical form of the tree is commonly preserved; and many examples are now known of groups of erect Sigillariæ, with their roots extending into the surrounding clay or sandy loam; the roots proving to be the fossil bodies called Stigmariæ, which were formerly supposed to be a distinct family of aquatic plants.[16] The first discovery of this highly interesting and unexpected fact was made by Mr. Binney.[17]

[16] Dr. Buckland's Bridgewater Essay, vol. i. p. 476.

[17] See "Supplementary Notes, p. 198."

The specimen figured was found in an erect position in the sandstone of a quarry at Rowmarsh, near Rotherham in Yorkshire.

The stem is simple, the furrows small and wavy, impressed with dots on the ridges. The cicatrices are ovate, subpentagonal, with the lower angles rounded, having a single gland near the lower extremity. The stem is three feet long, and four inches in diameter.

The transverse section, as seen in fig. 1, shows traces of a double concentric ring, as if produced by internal structure. Fig. 2, displays the equality of the stem throughout its entire length, and its abrupt termination. In fig. 3, is seen the cicatrix with its single gland, for the attachment of the petiole or leaf-stalk. Fig. 4, indicates the undulating line of the top of the ridge.

"The originals of these fossils are supposed by M. Ad. Brongniart to have constituted a peculiar family of coniferous plants, now extinct, which probably belonged to the great division of gymnospermous dicotyledons. In their external forms they somewhat resembled the Cacteæ or Euphorbiæ, but were more nearly related by their internal organization to the Zamiæ or Cycadeæ. The leaves and fruits of these trees are unknown, for no satisfactory connexion has been established between the stems, and the foliage and seed vessels with which they are sometimes collocated."[18]

[18] Medals of Creation, vol. i. p. 138.

Plate XX.

PLATE XX.

"Sigillaria."

(Euphorbites vulgaris, of Artis.)

This species is characterized by the remarkable fish-like form of the cicatrices left by the base of the leaf-stalks, and by the rapid tapering of the upper part of the stem, as shown in the reduced figure 1, which represents a specimen nine feet long, five feet in circumference at the base, and only twenty-one inches in circumference at the upper end.

The ridges, which at the superior extremity are simple and narrow, and parted only by a single line, become at the lower part of the stem wide and flat, and are separated by a groove of equal breadth, as seen in fig. 3, which is taken from B, fig. 1.

Fig. 2, represents a portion towards the upper end, at A, fig. 1; and exhibits the different appearance of the bark, and the under surface, when the cortical investment is removed; the imprints in each case differing very much in appearance.

The specimen from which the drawing was taken, was from a sandstone quarry near Altofts, in Yorkshire. In one of the abandoned chambers of the upper Elsecar coal-mine, seven trunks of this tree were suspended freely from the roof, the largest of which was eight feet in circumference.

Plate XXI.

PLATE XXI.

"Ficoid Stigmaria."

(Stigmaria ficoides, of M. Brongniart, Hist. Veg. Foss. tab. 17, figs. 5, 6. Ficoidites furcatus, of Mr. Artis.)

The fossil trunks or stems called Stigmariæ, or Variolæ, (from the pits or areolæ with which they are studded,) occur as abundantly in the coal formation as the Sigillariæ, of which tribe of plants unequivocal proof has at length been obtained that they are the roots. These bodies are more or less regularly cylindrical, and vary in length from a few inches to fifteen or twenty feet, the largest being several inches in diameter. Their surface is covered with numerous oval or circular depressions, in the middle of each of which there is a rounded papilla, or tubercle. These variolæ are disposed round the stem in quincunx order. When these roots are broken across, a small cylindrical core or pith is exposed, which extends in a longitudinal direction throughout the stem, like a medullary column. This central axis, which is often separable from the surrounding mass, is composed of bundles of vascular tissue disposed in a radiated manner, and separated from each other by medullary rays. This internal organization presents the same correspondence with that of the stems of Sigillariæ, as does the structure of the roots of a dicotyledonous tree with that of its branches and stems.

The Stigmariæ are almost invariably present in the bed called the "Under Clay," which underlies the coal, and when observed in this situation, long tapering sub-cylindrical fibres are found attached to the tubercles; and these processes or rootlets are often several feet in length. Their form and mode of attachment are shown at C, D; the rootlets terminate in bifurcations, as seen at A, B.

The specimen here figured is part of a root nearly six feet long, and three inches in diameter; some of the rootlets were two feet long. It is imbedded in shale; from Elsecar colliery.[19]

[19] A Stigmaria with rootlets, many feet in length, is placed over the doorway in the room devoted to fossil vegetables in the Gallery of Organic Remains in the British Museum.

Plate XXII.

PLATE XXII.

"Warty Stigmaria."

(Stigmaria ficoides, Brongniart. Phytolithus verrucosus, Martin's Petrificata Derbiensia, Pl. II. Ficoidites verrucosus, of Artis.)

In this species of Stigmaria the tubercles vary considerably in size, and give a verrucose, or warty, aspect to the surface. The specimen figured on a small scale, fig. 2, and a portion of the natural size, fig. 1, was between five and six feet in length, and four inches in diameter. A groove visible on the external surface indicates the inner axis, which by compression has been pressed from its natural central position; see fig. 2, A, B, C, D: figs. 6, 7, 8, 9, show in the corresponding transverse sections the position of this body.

The mode of attachment of the rootlets to the tubercle on the main root, is represented fig. 5. Fig. 3, exhibits the characters of the two kinds of variolæ, or tubercles.

When Dr. Buckland's Bridgewater Essay was published, the true nature of these fossil remains was unknown. It was supposed by Messrs. Lindley and Hutton, that the original was an aquatic plant, having a short dome-shaped trunk, from which radiated numerous long horizontal branches; and that when the plant was perfect, and the branches floating on the water, its appearance resembled that of an Asterias.[20] This dome-shaped trunk is now known to be merely the base of the stem of the tree. See Supplementary Notes, art. Stigmaria.

[20] Dr. Buckland's Bridgewater Essay, vol. ii. p. 95.

Plate XXIII.

PLATE XXIII.

"Great Stigmaria."

(Stigmaria ficoides, of Brongniart. Ficoidites major, of Artis.)

The fossil here represented is a fragment of a Stigmaria having larger tubercles than the species previously described. The tubercles are oval at the base, somewhat compressed, longitudinally farrowed at the top, with a pit in the furrow.

This root is from five to six inches in diameter; the axis is seen near the compressed side, in the transverse section at the bottom of the figure.

From a sandstone quarry, near Rotherham, Yorkshire.

The specimen figured by Mr. Parkinson, ante, Plate III. fig. 1, appears to be the fragment of a Stigmaria of this kind in ironstone: the internal axis is seen in the transverse section pressed from its natural position to near the outer surface.

Plate XXIV.

PLATE XXIV.

"Crested Aspidiaria."

(Aspidiaria cristata, of Presl. Sigillaria appendiculata, Brongniart. Aphyllum cristatum, Artis.)

The fossil here represented is part of the stem of a tree nearly forty feet long, and two feet in diameter, found imbedded in sandstone at Banktop, Yorkshire.

The cicatrices of the petioles are obovate, and have a central oblong crest or ridge; the interstices form deep angular furrows.

The stems with this type of sculpturing, are supposed to belong to a group of extinct vegetables, which held an intermediate place between the Sigillariæ, previously described, and the Lepidodendra; together with the latter, and certain true Coniferæ and arborescent ferns, these trees appear to have constituted the principal forests of the Carboniferous epoch.

Plate XXV.

PLATE XXV.

"Frondose Megaphyton."

(Megaphyton distans, of Lindley and Hutton's Fossil Flora of Great Britain.)

Very large stems not channelled, with regular cicatrices of great size, arranged longitudinally, occur in the sandstone and grits of the Carboniferous formation, and are supposed to belong to a tribe of extinct plants, more nearly allied to the arborescent ferns of our tropical climes, than to any other existing trees.

The specimen figured is part of a stem ten feet in length, from a quarry near Rowmarsh in Yorkshire.

This stem has a coarse fibrous surface, furrowed longitudinally; the cicatrices left by the shedding of the leaves are of a horseshoe shape with the points directed upwards.

This group of stems has been separated by writers on fossil botany into several genera, as Bothrodendron, Ulodendron, &c.[21] In some of these the scars are five inches in diameter.

[21] See Dr. Buckland's Bridgewater Essay, plate 56.

There are many fine examples of these fossils in the British Museum.

Plate XXVI.

PLATE XXVI.

"Lepidodendron, or Scaly-tree."

(Aphyllum asperum, Rough Aphyllum, of Artis.)

"The Lepidodendra (Scaly-trees) are a tribe of plants whose remains abound in the Coal formation, and rival in number and magnitude the Calamites and Sigillariæ previously described. The name is derived from the imbricated or scaly appearance of the surface, occasioned by the little angular scars left by the separation of the leaves. Some of these trees have been found almost entire, from their roots to the topmost branches. One specimen, forty feet high, and thirteen feet in diameter at the base, and divided towards the summit into fifteen or twenty branches, was discovered in the Jarrow coal-mine, near Newcastle.[22]

[22] Wonders of Geology, sixth edition, vol. ii. p. 722.

"The foliage of these trees consists of simple linear leaves, spirally arranged around the stem, and which appear to have been shed from the base of the tree with age. The markings produced by the attachment of the leaves are never obliterated, and the twigs and branches are generally found covered with foliage. The originals are supposed by M. Adolphe Brongniart, notwithstanding their gigantic size, to have been closely related to the Lycopodia, or Club-mosses."[23]

[23] Medals of Creation, p. 144.

Associated with the stems of Lepidodendra, and oftentimes imbedded in masses of their foliage, and in some instances attached to the extremities of the branches, are numerous oblong or cylindrical scaly cones, garnished with leaves: an imperfect specimen is figured in Plate IX. fig. 1, and the vertical section of another in Plate III. fig. 6. These cones have received the name of Lepidostrobi (Scaly-cones), and are the seed-vessels or fruits of the Lepidodendra.[24]

[24] See Medals of Creation, p. 147, and lign. 31, p. 149.

These fossils often form the nuclei of the ironstone nodules from Coalbrook Dale, and are invested with a pure white hydrate of alumina; the leaflets, or more properly bracteæ, are often replaced by galena, or sulphuret of lead, giving rise to specimens of great beauty and interest, as examples of the electro-chemical changes which these fruits of the carboniferous forests have undergone.

The fossils figured in this Plate, are portions of a stem eleven feet in length, from near Hoyland, Yorkshire. Fig. 1, is from the upper part, and shows the carbonized scales attached; fig. 2, represents part of the lower end, in which the scales are decorticated, from the adhesion of the bark to the surrounding shale.

A. Shows the cicatrix, with its transverse gland that connects the scale, in the upper part

of the trunk.

B. Exposes the interstice between the scales in the lower portion of the stem.

C. A section of the hollow cicatrix.

Plate XXVII.

PLATE XXVII.

"Lychnophorite."

(Lychnophorites superus, of Artis.)

The fossil figured under the above name by Mr. Artis, is part of a large branch of a tree, the surface of which is covered with the cicatrices of leaf-stalks, as in the Lepidodendron. The form of the cicatrix and point of attachment is shown at B; figure A, is the restored outline of a leaf.

"Dr. Martins refers the fossil plants of this type to a recent shrubby genus of syngenesious plants, which cover the plains of Brazil, and which he names Lychnophora, whence he formed this fossil genus, by changing the termination to ites, according to the common usage."—Artis.

The specimen represented is in sandstone, from Swinton Common, near Rotherham, Yorkshire.

This tree seems to be closely allied to the Lepidodendra.

Plate XXVIII.

PLATE XXVIII.

"Eared Neuropterite."

(Neuropteris auriculata, Brongniart. Hist. Veg. Foss. tab. 66. Filicites Osmunda, of Artis.)

The general aspect of this beautiful filicite very much resembles that of our well-known flowering fern, the elegant Osmunda regalis; the auriculated or one-eared base of the lanceolated leaflets forms, however, a distinguishing character. It belongs to the genus Neuropteris (nerved-leaf fern) of M. Brongniart, which comprises many species of delicately-veined ferns: the veins in this fossil plant are very fine, arched, and rise obliquely from the base of the leaflet.

The leaflets are often found detached, and in many instances, though completely carbonized, are so firm, and so slightly attached to the shale, that they may be separated by a pair of forceps: when removed, their impression remains on the stone, as is shown in the light-coloured part of the figure 2; the form and distribution of the rib, and nervures or veins, are seen in fig. 3.

From Elsecar colliery.