OLDEST PETRIFIED FOREST GOLDEING 323 



species of trees be distinguished while living; for if the two species 

 differed in foliage and fructifications, with all the collections that 

 have been made, some evidence of this would have come to light. 

 There may, however, be another explanation of this. The fact that 

 stumps of the textilis type have been found in numbers greatly in 

 excess of those of the erianus type may accoimt for the collection of 

 only one kind of foliage and fructification, especially since the locali- 

 ties from which the collection of this material was made were few 

 and of limited extent. 



4. DESCRIPTION OF FORESTS AND RESTORATION 



By June, 1922, after more than half a century since their first dis- 

 covery, we were in a position to place our trees in their proper rela- 

 tionship and to attempt a restoration. These Gilboa trees in general 

 appearance must have resembled the tree ferns of the Tropics to-day 

 and also of the ancient Carboniferous and Upper Devonian times. 

 The Gilboa trees, however, do not belong in this group; they were 

 higher types (seed ferns or Pteridospermophytes), standing in a po- 

 sition between the tree ferns and higher seed plants, and they differ 

 from the true ferns in the possession of seeds and in the higher or- 

 ganization of the trunk. Since the name Psaronius had to be aban- 

 doned for these seed ferns, a new genus was created, Eospermatop- 

 teris, meaning "dawn of the seed fern" (from the Greek: eos — 

 dawn; sperma — seed; pteris — feim,) , and the two species now stand as 

 Eospermatoptei^ textilis (Dawson) and E. erianus (Dawson). 



As already pointed out, these trees grew along a low swampy 

 shore. They probably reared themselves to heights of at least 25 

 to 40 feet and bore fronds at least 6 to 9 feet in length, on the tips of 

 some of which were borne the seeds. The bulbous base undoubtedly 

 was buried in the swampy mud for some distance, as the roots are 

 not heavy and the tree otherwise would not have adequate support. 

 The foliage of the trees was not heavy, much looser than in the tree 

 ferns of to-day and the pinnules or leaflets were far apart (see pi. 

 2). There could have been no dense shade in this primitive forest; 

 except, perhaps, for the heavy moist atmosphere sunlight could 

 easily filter through. No higher forms of life existed there. The 

 hum of insects was not heard, for there were no insects here at that 

 time. All the sound one would hear, could one have been in that 

 ancient forest, would be the murmuring of the winds in the tree tops 

 or sounds from the neighboring sea or at times the howling of 

 destructive storms. Three such forests, undaunted, reared them- 

 selves in all their glory, were cut down by the sea, buried, and 

 fossilized. 



The restoration of the Fossil Forests of Gilboa (see pi. 1) was 

 executed by the artist and sculptor, Mr. Henri Marchand, and his sons, 



