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Contributions towards Establishing the General Character of 
the Fossil Plants of the genus Sigillaria. By WILLIAM 
Kine, Esq., Curator of the Museum of the Natural His- 
tory Society of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle- 
upon-Tyne. With Two Plates. (Communicated by the 
Author.) 
(Concluded from page 75, vol. xxxvii.) 
The most weighty objections that may be urged against Stgmaria 
being the root of Sigillaria, have been advanced by Brongniart; they 
consist of the presence of a pith in the former, and of the spiral arrange- 
ment of its fibrils. But the last character, it would appear, is often seen 
in aquatic plants; and as regards the first it has been observed in the 
roots of several Zamias.* Coming from so distinguished a botanist, the 
correctness of these statements cannot, for a moment, be doubted; per- 
haps, however, it is but anticipating the like expression of others, if I 
signify my regret at Bronguiart not having named the plants which are 
furnished with spirally arranged fibrils.t 
. But, admitting that no existing plant possesses fibrils which are dis- 
posed in a spiral manner, it surely cannot be supposed, that any one 
acquainted with the anomalies of organization which paleontology is 
continually revealing, cam look upon the fact involved in this admission 
as in the least invalidating the conclusion at which we have arrived. 
Having brought our description of the external characters of Stigmaria 
to a close, our next object will be, to give an account of its internal 
structure; but as the histology of one or two plants of the carbonifer- 
ous epoch is calculated to clear up some dubious points in this struc- 
ture, it is, perhaps, the best plan to take them first into consideration. 
The plants here alluded to, are Lepidodendron and Anabathra pulcher- 
rima, 
The details which Witham, Lindley, Hutton, and Brongniart, have 
severally published, in elucidation of the anatomy of Lepidodendron, ren- 
der a lengthy description of this character unnecessary. 
Proceeding from the periphery to the centre, the stem of Lepidoden- 
dron may, in brief terms, be stated to consist of, first, a thin cuticle; 
* Vide Brongniart’s Observations on the Internal Structure of Sigillaria elegans. 
+ Some arguments were inserted here in my MS., to shew, that in Stigmaria 
there are combined the form of a true radix, and the spiral arrangement of the 
Jibrils of a rhizome: this notion is now abandoned. It was also my intention 
to have entered somewhat into detail respecting the superficial characters of this 
‘fossil; but this has been deferred for the present. 
