170 Mr. Binney on the remarkable Fossil Trees 



inches, and the fourth about two feet. The workmen assured 

 me that they had measured the four roots full nine feet from 

 the stem. All the roots are coated with a slight covering of 

 bituminous coal, which adheres to the matrix in clearing them, 

 so that, they all appear decorticated. Their surfaces are of a 

 blackish colour, and marked with ribs and furrows which di- 

 verge on each side of lines which are parallel with the longi- 

 tudinal axis of the root, a peculiar character noticed by my 

 friend, the late Mr. Bowman, in the roots of the Dixon Fold 

 trees. Although the roots I examined were on the rise of the 

 strata, they struck down into the indurated clay at a greater 

 angle than those at Dixon Fold. The root on the south of 

 the stem was the one I first examined ; on inspection I noticed 

 the fibrils, so long considered as the leaves of the Stigmaria, 

 proceeding from it in all directions, but more numerously from 

 the under than the upper side. On looking at the matrix on 

 which the continuation of the root had laid, I found the areolae 

 with a little elevation in the centre, the convex corrugated 

 lines so common to large Stigmaria and the central pith, which 

 had evidently sunk down and formed a groove in the matrix. 

 The fibrils or radicles were all flat and showed something like 

 a central axis — some of them were measured — upwards of 

 three feet below the stem, and others, although not absolutely 

 proved to be continuous, could be traced eight and nine feet 

 down. Indeed, the whole of the shale lying between the base of 

 the tree and the top of the white rock was traversed by these 

 fibrils or radicles proceeding from the main roots. I did not 

 notice any entering into the rock itself. Immediately under, but 

 I could not see it join the tree, proceeded a stem like a tap-root, 

 about 2^ inches in diameter and inclining a little to the north; 

 it was about two feet long, but owing to my being able only 

 to examine the mould, I could not make out its characters. 

 The north root I carefully cleared from the matrix to the ex- 

 tent of near two feet, and found the radicles to proceed from 

 the main root in all directions, but stronger and more nume- 

 rously from the under side of it. In addition to these, I found 

 a circular tapering root of about an inch in diameter proceed- 

 ing in a straight line. I attempted to obtain a portion of the 

 root with the bark upon it, but I could not succeed, the coaly 

 envelope always adhering to the matrix and leaving the root 

 decorticated. 



Notwithstanding that I carefully examined the stem of No. 

 1 four feet upwards, I could not distinguish the scars so ge- 

 nerally found on Sigillaria. The trunk was decorticated, with 

 the exception of some small specks of coal, and was marked 

 with irregular ribs, slightly convex, and parted by shallow and 



