27 



unimportant to invalidate Brongniart's classification, or 

 to demonstrate why the fossil plant should be denied 

 the dignity of a peculiar and independent species. The 

 manifest objection to the specific independence of every 

 modification of the Lepidondendra seems scarcely appli- 

 cable in the present instance; — for our specimen is 

 remarkably large, and, it may be presumed, fully devel- 

 oped, Avhile the areolae are most distinctly defined. 



Distribution , in coal formation : — in Sydney coal 

 field. Cape Breton ; i at South Joggins , Nova Scotia ; 

 in the coal field of Tuscaloasa, Alabama; 2 in Ohio — 

 immediately in argillaceous sandstone 3. 



LEPIDODENDRON BEYRICHII , Kl M B A L L. 

 PI. Ill, fig. 4. 



Areolae perfectly contiguous , — approximatively 

 hexagonal (the perimeter being, however, decidedly cur- 

 vilinear); surface delicately, longitudinally striate; scar 

 circular and situate in the middle of the areola ; subjacent 

 to the central scar is a distinct, but irregularly shaped 

 marking. 



Of all the hitherto described Lepidodendra , we find 

 but two species that possess any remarkable features 



• The Quar. Jour of the Geol. Soc. of London, 1847 : — C. 

 J. F. Bunbury : — on the coal formation of Cape Breton. 



2 Sill. Jour. 2nd se. 2-1846, p. 228: - Observations on the 

 Fossil Plants of the coal field of Tuscaloasa, Alabama, — by 

 C. Lyell with a description of some species by C. J. F. Bunbury- 



3 This matrix of argillaceous sandstone is characterized by a 

 high degree of friability, and by its richness in minute grains 

 or scales of mica. The Ohio specimen of Lepidodendron dichot- 

 omimt, page25 , lies in the same rock. 



