FLORA OF THE CARBONIFEROUS EPOCH. 



41 



morplia, Palasopteris Roenieriana, Sphenopteris Schimperi, 

 Lepidodendroii Yeltheimianiim, L. commutatum, L. Cariieg- 

 giannum, L. Wilkianum, Lepidopliylliim Roemeri, Knorria 

 imbricata, K. acicularis, Calamites radiatiis, Cyclostigma 

 Kiltorkense, Stigmaria ficoides, etc., Cardiocarpiim ursiuum, 

 C. punctulatum, besides various sporangia and spores. 



The preponderance of Ferns over flowering plants is seen 

 at the present day in many tropical islands, such as St. 

 Helena and tbe Society group, as well as in extra-tropical 

 islands, as New Zealand. In the latter. Hooker picked 36 

 kinds in an area of a few acres ; they gave a luxuriant aspect 

 to the vegetation, which presented scarcely twelve flowering 

 plants and trees besides. An equal area in the neighbour- 

 hood of Sydney (in about the same latitude) would have 

 yielded upwards of 100 flowering plants, and only two or 

 three Ferns. This Acrogenous flora, 

 then, seems to favour the idea of a 

 humid as well as mild and equable 

 climate at the period of the coal 

 formation — the vegetation being that 

 of islands in the midst of a vast 

 ocean. Lesquereux, in Silliman's 

 Journal, gives three sections of Ferns 

 in the Carboniferous strata — viz. 

 Neuropteridea3, Pecopteridea3, and 

 Sphenopteridea3. In Neuropteridea; 

 fructification has been seen in Odon- 

 topteris. In this genus the spores 

 are in a peculiar bladdery sporan- 

 gium. In Neuropteridea3 the fructification appears to have 

 resembled Dana?a in some cases, and Osmunda in others. 

 Professor Geikie has noticed in the lower Carboniferous 

 shales of Slateford, near Edinburgh, a fern which has been 

 named Adiantites Lindseasformis by Bunbury (Fig. 22, his). 

 Fig. 22, his. Adiantites Lindseseformif?. 



Fi<?. 22, bis. 



