of the Fossil Plants of the genus Sigillaria, 69 



posing them to have been hard woody spines (which assuredly they were 

 not), have taken the direction in which we now find them, proceeding 

 from the stem on all sides at right angles to its axis, and penetrating 

 the shale, even perpendicularly up and down to the extent of two or 

 three feet at least ; had the plant been floated, the leaves, on the con- 

 trary, must of necessity have been pressed upon the arms, surrounding 

 which we should have found their remains in confused masses, and 

 spread out irregularly by their side, in the plane of the surface on which 

 the plant had finally reposed ; none of this, however, takes place ; but, 

 on the contrary, when the shale is split, so as to expose the surface of 

 the fossil, the leaves are seen proceeding with the greatest regularity, 

 each from its separate tubercle— those only being distinct in the length 

 and breadth, which, when in a growing state, had been shot out in the 

 plane which is now the cleavage (line of deposition) of tlie shale. From 

 all these circumstances, we are compelled to conclude that these Stig" 

 marice were not floated from a distance, but that, on the contrary, they 

 grew on the spots where we now find their remains, in the soft mud, 

 most likely of still and shallow water."* Dr Buckland, however, has 

 arrived at a different conclusion. He says, " All these are conditions 

 which a plant habitually floating, with the leaves distended in every 

 direction, would not cease to maintain when drifted to the bottom of an 

 estuary, and there gradually surrounded by sediments of mud and 

 fiilt."t These are conflicting inferences, let us endeavour to ascertain 

 which is the true one. 



The data which the " intelligent observer," Steinhauer, has adduced, 

 in support of his opinion that IStigmaria '* shot out its fibres in every 

 direction through the then yielding mud," may be received without the 

 least hesitation, since they have been observed by too many witnesses to 

 be doubted for a single moment. The diagram which Lindley and Hutton 

 have given to represent the appendages " proceeding from the stem on 

 aU sides at right angles to its axis, and penetrating the shale even perpen- 

 dicularly up and down," may occasionally be seen represented on hand 

 specimens. I have lately obtained one of this kind, which is now in 

 the Newcastle Museum : it is a forked branch resting upon a matrix of 

 shale ; the last is made up of countless laminae, which there is little 

 doubt were deposited horizontally : both the forks cut the laminae at an 

 angle of twenty degrees. As this specimen is deprived of the super- 

 imposed portion of its matrix, it is of course deficient in enabling us to 

 trace the direction of the appendages which proceeded from its upper 

 surface ; but it furnishes us with positive evidence respecting the direc- 

 tion of those which passed from its sides and under surface. 



Fossil Flora," Vol. ii, Preface, p. xvi. 

 Bridgewater Treatise," Vol. i.,p. 477, foot note. 



