103 M. Brongniart on the Relations of the 



lated to the LycopodiacecB, and some Equisetacece ; and the gym- 

 nospermous dicotyledons^ comprising the Sigilla?'iea {Sigillaria, 

 Stigmaria^ Lepidojioijos), the CalamitacecR {Calamites) , the Coni- 

 fer (le {Walchia), and probably the Asterophyllece [Aster ophyllites, 

 Annularia and Sphenophyllum) . We thus see of what great 

 importance the latter branch of the vegetable kingdom, which is 

 so limited in the present vegetation, appears to have been at this 

 early period. The families which belong to it are moreover 

 still the most obscure, and such as deserve most to receive 

 the attention of botanists. The characters of most of them are 

 merely founded upon the form and structure of the stems, and 

 we are in general unacquainted with the form of their leaves and 

 fructification. 



The genus to which I now propose to draw attention is un- 

 known to us except by its leaves ; but I believe that I can refer 

 organs of fructification to this genus, establish by this means its 

 relations to recent plants upon a solid basis, and show that it 

 closely approaches a family of the gymnospermous dicotyledons 

 still in existence, the Cycadece. 



M. de Sternberg * has given the name Noggerathia foliosa to 

 an impression of a leaf from the coal-formations of Bohemia. 

 At first he did not point out any relation between these plants 

 and those at present existing; subsequently, by comparing them 

 to the leaves of Caryota, he placed them near the Palms, and 

 more recently he arranged them among the monocotyledons, 

 without fixing their position. At a period when I was unac- 

 quainted with this fossil except from the figure of M. de Sternberg, 

 I admitted the analogy of these leaves with those of Caryota. Mr. 

 Lindley, and quite recently M. Corda, still admit this position of 

 Noggerathia among the Palms. On the contrary, M. Ungerf 

 and M. Goeppert %, as I presume, have classed this genus among 

 the Ferns. Which is the most probable of these opinions ? Are 

 there not more intimate relations between this fossil plant and 

 other living plants ? We shall examine this point. We may first 

 remark, that the genus Noggerathia is not confined to the single 

 very rare species at first described by M. de Sternberg, and which 

 has only hitherto been found in the coal-mines of Bohemia. 

 Messrs. Lindley and Hutton long since added Noggerathia fia- 

 bellata from the Newcastle mines to this genus. M. Unger enu- 

 merates, in addition, two species described by M. Goeppert, and 

 I have made known two from the Permian sandstone of Uussia 

 in Messrs. Murchison and VerneuiFs large work. I should add, 



* Flore du Monde Primitif, fasc. 2. p. 32. t. 20. 

 •f* Synopsis Plantarum Foseilium. 



X Genres des Plantes Fossiles, livraisons 5 et 6 (quoted by M. Unger). 

 This livraison has not yet arrived at Paris. 



