ERECT SIGILLARIA WITH ROOTS. Le /$ 
discovery ; the same gentleman laid bare, on the floor of the 
mine at Dunkinfold, near Manchester, a large erect trunk 
of a Sigillaria, with numerous Stigmariz roots. 
In the Pictou coal-field of Cape Breton, in Nova Scotia, 
similar facts have been brought to light ; the remarkable 
phenomena existing in that locality, of successive carboni- 
ferous deposits containing scores of erect trees with roots 
spreading into their native soil, presenting peculiar facilities 
for verifying the observations made in England. In an 
interesting memoir on the coal-fields of Nova Scotia, Mr. 
Richard Brown has given a detailed account of numerous 
examples of stems of Sigillarize, and of Lepidodendra, (a tribe 
of gigantic club-mosses of which we shall presently treat,) 
with the roots attached ; these roots, in every instance, had 
the characters and structure of Stigmariz. In one instance, 
the stem of the tree was broken off close to the roots, and 
the hollow cylinder of bark was bent down and doubled 
over by the pressure of the surrounding mud, so as effec- 
tually to close up the aperture, and leave only a few irre- 
gular cicatrices converging near the apex; this fossil 
explains the true nature of the “ dome-shaped” plant figured 
in the Fossil Flora, and in Dr. Buckland’s Essay.* 
LEPIDODENDRON (scaly-tree). Lign. 39.—Stems cylin- 
drical, covered towards their extremities with simple, linear, 
or lanceolate leaves, which are attached to elevated rhom- 
boidal spaces, or papillee ; papillz marked in the upper part 
with a large transverse triangular scar; lower part of the 
stem destitute of leaves. 
The remains of this tribe of plants abound in the coal 
formation, and rival in number and magnitude the Cala- 
mites and Sigillarize previously described. These trees have 
received the name of Lepidodendra, from the scaly character 
* See Pictorial Atlas, p. 200: and Petrifactions, pp. 37, 38. 
