270 STIGMARIA. 



abbreviata on Goldenberg's plate, comes from Hirschbach near SaarbrUcken, 

 and has numerous strong longitudinal furrows on its surface running from 

 one scar to another ; the scars themselves lie in small pits, are broader in the 

 transverse direction, and have sharp lateral edges. This species bears some 

 resemblance to Sigillaria, and will have to be mentioned again later on. 

 Besides these marked forms there are some others which depart less widely 

 from the type of Stigmaria ficoides. We will mention here only Stigmaria 

 ficoides var. undulata 1 and Stigmaria ficoides var. sigillarioides 2 . In the 

 latter the scars are placed in longitudinal rows on vertical flatly-convex ribs, 

 and this gives it the habit of Sigillaria ; in the other form they are inclosed 

 within sinuous furrows forming fusiform figures, which are connected to- 

 gether in the longitudinal direction by narrow bridges, and have each of 

 them a central scar. 



Numerous axes of Stigmariae with the structure preserved have been 

 obtained from the calcareous nodules of the English and Rhenish Coal- 

 measures, from the sphaerosiderites of Coalbrook dale, from the lenticular 

 calcareous stones of the Culm of Falkenberg in Silesia, and from the pebbles 

 of Autun. Similar fossils have also been found at Radnitz in Bohemia. 

 Their anatomy has been discussed by a great variety of authors, and has 

 been illustrated by means of figures. The most eminent works on the 

 subject are those of Lindley and Hutton :! , Corda 4 , Brongniart 5 , Goppert 6 , 

 Hooker 7 , Williamson 8 . Binney 1 ', and Renault 10 . These specimens have 

 usually lost the rind and the appendages, and show only an annular woody 

 body of some thickness. The central portion of this body is almost always 

 a hollow cylinder filled with a mass of stone showing no structure. This is 

 always the case, for example, in the specimens from Coalbrook dale, which 

 are imbedded in a reddish-brown stone and show only the wood, but in a very 

 good state of preservation ; usually also in those from the calcareous nodules, 

 in which the crushed condition and displacement of the parts testify to the 

 soft state proper to the material when the object was being imbedded. 



The transverse section shows this ring of wood broken up into a 

 number of wedge-shaped segments, which are broader towards the outside, 

 and are separated from one another by primary rays or gaps passing through 

 the wood. All the wedges come to an end abruptly, as if cut off, on the side 

 towards the central tube, and show a flat bluntly-rounded termination, on 

 which no prominent primary bundle can be perceived. In other respects they 

 have no special peculiarity; they are traversed by numerous parenchymatous 

 secondary rays, and consist of scalariform tracheides, with broad lumina and 



1 Goppert (1), Lief, i and 2, t. 9, ff. 5-9. 2 Goppert (1), Parts i and 2, t. 10, f. 13. 



' Lindley and Hutton (1), vol. iii, t. 166. 4 Corda (1), tt. 13, 14. * Brongniart (7). 



Goppert (l),tt. 13, 14. 7 Hooker (4). ' Williamson (1), n, xi. Binney (1), iv. 

 10 Renault (2\ vol. i, vol. iii, Introd. and ^10). 



