316 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



ject, three species of palms only are noticed as occurring 1 in the coal. 

 Others have been found in bituminous shales, but the largest part of 

 the fossils, considered as palms, have been found in much later forma- 

 tions. Mr. Teschemacher thought he could show that the palms 

 formed a more considerable portion of the coal vegetation than had 

 been generally supposed. On six or eight specimens of the coal, the 

 vegetable fossils were interspersed with round concavities, from a very 

 small size to a quarter of an inch in diameter, some of them surround- 

 ed by stellate fissures, and filled with a black powder ; these he had 

 long considered as a fungus growth. On the recent specimens ex- 

 hibited were precisely the same appearances, so that no doubt could 

 be entertained of the correctness of this opinion. Although the exist- 

 ence of this fungus on the recent palm is no distinct proof of the fossil 

 plant being a palm, as the same fungus may also vegetate upon 

 Graminece, Catamitea, or Filices, yet, as the fossil stem and its struc- 

 ture resembles that of the palm, this evidence is of some weight. He 

 then exhibited other much larger and more extensive stellate appear- 

 ances on the fossils, each with its nucleus, which he thought also be- 

 longed to the fungus tribe, particularly as in one specimen they were 

 connected together. Specimens of fossil vegetables in coal were ex- 

 hibited, containing horizontal fissures across the vegetable structure ; 

 these which were curved and irregular in various ways, he compared 

 with the veins in the various recent palm-leaves, which are also hori- 

 zontal, and explained that these veins, being composed of annular ves- 

 sels, under vertical pressure would form exactly such fissures as are 

 observed in the fossil. The only difficulty attending the explanation 

 was, that some fossil specimens contained these horizontal fissures of 

 such large dimensions, that some of the foliar appendages must have 

 been of much larger size than any now existing ; still he thought he 

 could produce other fossil proof of the existence of this enormous foli- 

 age. In reply to a question from Prof. Rogers, Mr. Teschemacher 

 said, that under the microscope the coal striae lose their definite outline, 

 and no organic texture is made out. 



