284 STIGMARIA. 



nevertheless met with a favourable reception, it was only because there 

 appeared to be other reasons compelling its adoption ; Geinitz l , for 

 example, and Schimper 2 after him had insisted on the extraordinary 

 abundance of Stigmaria ficoides in the sandstones of the Culm, in which 

 there are no Sigillariae but great numbers of Lepidodendrae and Knorriae. 

 This is the case at Burbach near Thann, and also near Hainichen 

 and Ebersdorf in Saxony, and in the anthracites of the Roannais 3 ; and 

 Geinitz 4 expressly states that the roots of Lepidodendron rimosum, which 

 he examined in the mines at Niedercainsdorf in Saxony, showed quite the 

 characters of Stigmariae. The views of all these authors have been con- 

 firmed by the discovery of a stem from the quarries at Burbach, which is 

 now in the Museum at Colmar. Schimper 5 says that this stem has the 

 characters of Knorria longifolia above, lower down those of Didymophyllum 

 Schottini and Ancistrophyllum, and that an indubitable Stigmaria with one 

 bifurcation is attached laterally to its base. When I saw the specimen, 

 some years ago it is true, it seemed to me also quite convincing. 



Hitherto we have been exclusively occupied with the question of the 

 kind of stems which ended below in Stigmariae ; it remains to describe the 

 form of the bases of these stems, and of this we have very accurate know- 

 ledge from the number of specimens which have been met with in recent times. 

 The most important fact to notice is that a tap-root has never in any case 

 been found as the direct prolongation of the stem, but that the latter ends 

 abruptly, and only gives rise to lateral branches which run in a horizontal 

 direction and soon assume the character of Stigmariae. These diverging 

 main branches are always four in number, and being connected together 

 like the arms of a cross, they inclose the somewhat depressed lower surface 

 of the base of the stem. So much had been already observed by Lindley 

 and Hutton in their stems. The central depression may be seen, when the 

 preservation is good, to be traversed by four furrows which meet in the 

 central point, and are the boundaries of the areas of origin of the four 

 Stigmariae. As good examples of this regular division into four, which it 

 seems natural to refer to rapidly repeated dichotomy, may be mentioned 

 Richard Brown's 6 specimens which were noticed on the previous page, the 

 stumps from Bradford described by Binney 7 and preserved in the Museum 

 at Leeds, Goppert's 8 specimens from Schatzlar, and Williamson's 9 ex- 

 tremely beautiful new figures (Fig. 37 B). If Temme's 10 stem from Piesberg 

 is represented with six roots, this is no doubt because two of its four 

 original branches have each formed a new bifurcation at once and without 



1 Geinitz (5) and (8). a Schimper (4). s Grand' Eury (1), p. 411. 4 Geinitz (5), 



p. 36. 5 Schimper (1), vol. ii, Part I, p. 117. 6 Brown, Rich. (1) and (2). 7 Binney 



(7), ff. 5, 6. Goppert (14), p. 79, t. 15 and (3), t. 36, ff. i, 2 ; Romer, F. (1), p. 232. 



9 Williamson (6), tt. 2, 3. J0 Temme (1). 



