62 FOSSIL COAL PLANTS. 



When we take into consideration the unusual circum- 

 stances which must attend the fossilization in any thing 

 like a perfect form, of any of the flowers of the {)resent 

 day, we need not be surprised that they are rarely found 

 preserved in the rocks of the different geological epochs; 

 and we have no reason to infer from the scarcity of the 

 remains of objects so delicate and perishable, that the 

 flora of the ancient world was barren and uninteresting. 



Although preserved with great distinctness and beauty, 

 it is quite impossible to determine, with certainty, the 

 number and character of the floral envelopes in this unique 

 fossil, or its precise place in the vegetable kingdom. At 

 first sight it resembles one of the Compositae^ with an 

 imbricated involucre and a few ray florets, and such is 

 especially the appearance of the flower when compressed 

 so as to present a discoid expansion of its parts; but this 

 resemblance is so vague and general that it aff'ords no 

 very strong ground for supposing that the order of the 

 Compositae dated from so very remote an epoch. It 

 resembles, perhaps, as much some of the Yiiccas or 

 Bromelias^ and in their vicinity I should be disposed to 

 place it. 



I have found this fossil only in one locality in Mahoning 

 county, associated with Figs. 2-3, and enveloped in great 

 quantities of the leaves and stems of No&ggeratliia. So 

 intimate and exclusive is the companionship of these 

 fossils, that I have been led to suspect them to be but 

 parts of the same plant. If this were true, we should have 

 a stem resembling in its external markings the stem of 

 the Y-uccas, but with a different internal structure; leaves 

 having somewhat the form, and almost precisely the 

 nervation of the same family, to which would belong 

 appropriate flowers; an ensemhle which would be closely 

 allied to the Lilliacece among living plants, and yet sepa- 

 rated from this order by the anatomical structure of the 

 stem. 



