80 EQUISETACE^. 



cerning this flora," writes Sir Charles Lyell, "still holds true, 

 namely — that the state of the vegetable world was then extremely 

 different from that now prevailing, not only because the cryptoga- 

 mous plants constituted nearly the whole flora, but also because 

 they were, on the whole, more highly developed than any belong- 

 ing to the same class now existing, and united some forms now 

 only found separately and in distinct orders. The only ph?enoga- 

 mous plants which constitute any feature in the coal are the 

 coniferas; monocotyledonous angiosperms appear to have been 

 very rare, and the dicotyledonous, with one or two exceptions, 

 were wanting." 



I will quote Sir Charles Lyell once more as to the Equisetacese 

 of the Coal period. This eminent geologist, referring to thfe 

 Horsetails, observes : — " To this family belong two fossil genera 

 of the Coal, Equisetites, and Calamites. The Calamites were 

 evidently closely related to the modern Horsetails {Eqiiiseia), 

 differing principally in their great size, the want of sheaths at the 

 joints, and some details of fructification. They grew in dense 

 brakes on sandy and muddy flats in the manner of modern 

 Equisetace^, and their remains are frequent in the coal. Seven 

 species of this plant occur in the great Nova Scotia section, where 

 stems of some of them, five inches in diameter and sometimes 

 eight feet high, may be seen terminating downwards in a tapering 

 root." The Brora coal, one of the most considerable Oolitic 

 seams in Europe, seems to have been formed almost exclusively of 

 an Equisetum, E. cohmmare. The Keuper beds in Wurtemberg 

 attain a thickness of about i,ooo feet. The plants of the Keuper 

 are generally analogous to those of the oolite and lias, consisting 

 of ferns, equisetaceous plants, cycads, and conifers, with a few 

 doubtful monocotyledons. " A few species," observes Lyell, 

 " such as Equisetites cohmmaris (Syn., Equisetum columnare, PI. 

 XL, Figs. 4, 5, and 6), are common to this group and the oolite." 



Li the State of Virginia, some thirteen miles from Richmond, 

 there is a coal-field occurring in the depression of the granite 

 rocks, and occupying a geological position analogous to that of 

 the New Red Sandstone of the Connecticut valley. It extends 

 twenty-six miles from north to south and four to twelve miles from 

 east to west. The fossil plants found there consist chiefly of 



