lately discovered near St. Helen's. 173 



genites striata, I cannot positively say which.* Now, although 

 it would not be safe to pronounce on a single specimen that 

 one of these hitherto supposed plants was an internal stem, 

 still, as we have seen that the Stigmaria and Sigillaria have so 

 long passed for distinct plants by the most eminent living bo- 

 tanists, we must not look to the opinions of men, however di- 

 stinguished, but rather trust to the collection of facts before 

 hazarding an opinion. The authors of the Fossil Flora, in 

 p. 24>, vol. iii. of that work, in describing the fossils of Burdie- 

 house, notice the rarity of Calamites, the almost entire absence 

 of Stigmaria, and that they did not find Sigillaria. In my own 

 experience I have always found Calamites associated with Si- 

 gillaria, and Stigmaria constantly present with them either in 

 the roof or floor. 



The StigmariaorSigillaria,whichevernameis to be retained, 

 and probably the latter is the most proper, was a tree that un- 

 doubtedly grew in water, for the indurated silty clay in which 

 the specimens described in this paper occur was deposited 

 from that medium, and the position of the roots and radicles, 

 ramifying through the strata in all directions, prove that they 

 grew there, and preclude the possibility of their ever having 

 been transported to the place where they are now found. The 

 position too of the trees, placed as they are about midway be- 

 tween two seams of coal, 33 yds. 1 ft. 11 ins. distant from each 

 other, proves that, however gradually the bottom of the water 

 may have subsided, still that the trees grew and flourished, 

 notwithstanding that very considerable portions of the stems 

 were submerged in water. This singular position of large 

 trees is very interesting; physiological botanists will now 

 probably be enabled to throw some light on the functions of 

 those fibrous appendages which proceeded from the furrows 

 of the stems of Sigillariae, and which may have assisted to 

 nourish these most extraordinary trees. 



* In this specimen the internal cylinder is the only vegetable matter in 

 the inside of the stem, and there can scarce be a probability of its having 

 been introduced, as is sometimes the case when Calamites are found mingled 

 with many other plants. 



Transverse section 

 of stem. 



