of the Fossil Plants of the genus Sigillaria, 6S 



this organ is said to have been found attached to the stem of this plant i 

 but, with the exception of a single case, to be alluded to presently, 

 the external characters were so imperfectly displayed as to render their 

 identity with those of any known fossil a matter of complete uncertainty. 

 The Sigillarias found at Dixonfold, in the excavation of the Manchester and 

 Bolton Railway, though clearly shewing the junction of the stem with 

 the root, yet, from the absence of the requisite characters, the latter part, 

 cannot be identified with any of the coal-measure fossils ; even the stem 

 is in such a state as to shew, in no very satisfactory manner, its identity 

 with Sigillaria, The same may be said of the fossil which is described 

 by the Rev. Patrick Brewster, in a paper read at a meeting of the Royal 

 fiociety of Edinburgh, in 1818, and published in the sixth volume of their 

 Transactions. The Killingworth specimen described by Mr Nicholas 

 Wood, in the first volume of the " Transactions of the Natural History 

 Society of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne," and 

 by Lindley and Hutton, in the first volume of the " Fossil Flora," ap^ 

 pears to have afibrded clearer evidence on this point ; but, unfortunately, 

 some cause or other, prevented it at the time, being followed up so 

 completely as could be wished. The fragment figured by these gentle- 

 men, as a portion of the root of this specimen, is now in the Newcastle 

 Museum ; and it is a fact not generally known, that it is no other than a 

 true Stigmaria. 



Our attention having been drawn to the last genus, we will, in the 

 next place, confine ourselves to the same, with the view of ascertaining 

 whether or not its connexion with Sigillaria, as favoured by Wood, 

 Lindley, and Hutton's account of the Killingworth fossil, can be sup- 

 ported by any other evidence than such as they have published. 



With reference to the situation which Stigmaria occupied in the vege- 

 table kingdom, various conjectures have been formed. Naw considered 

 it a palm : Schrank allied it to the Stapelias : Von Martins and Stem- 

 berg thought that it approached to the Euphorbias and Cactuses, — an 

 opinion which Lindley and Hutton seem inclined to adopt : Brongniart 

 at first placed it in ^' Aroidete" afterwards he referred it to " Lycopodia- 

 ceae ;" but, of late, he considers that it ought to be included in " a 

 peculiar and extinct family, belonging probably to the Gymnospermous 

 division of the Dicotyledons :" Buckland, in his " Bridge water Treatise," 

 seems in favour of its euphorbiaceous aflBnities ; but he advances the opi- 

 nion that it was probably an aquatic plant, " trailing in swamps, or 

 floating in still and shallow lakes, like the modern Stratiotes and 

 Isoetes :" Corda considers it to be more or less connected with " Cras- 

 sulacea " and " Cycadacea :" Gceppart elevates it to the rank of a 

 family under the name Stigmariadte, and looks upon it as connecting the 

 Lycopods with the Cycases: and Endlicher, in his "Enchiridion," 

 places it in the order " Jsoetete," class " Selagines," which, in addition to 

 the latter, is made to include the Lycopods and Lepidodendrons. 



The 'earliest detailed account of Stigmaria was given by the Rev, 



