THE CLUB-MOSSES 175 



more probable that they have become altogether 

 extinct. 



The characteristic Club-mosses of the Pal- 

 aeozoic period were trees, of which a great num- 

 ber are known. Hundreds of species have been 

 described, from all parts of the world in which 

 Carboniferous rocks have been explored. A 

 remarkable uniformity in the Flora prevailed in 

 those ages; there was little difference between 

 the vegetation of Australia, South Africa or South 

 America, and that of our own country. The 

 tree Lycopods, as their remains show, were extra- 

 ordinarily abundant, and no doubt formed the 

 chief feature of the swampy forests which made 

 the Coal. 



The trees were of great size. Last year a 

 gigantic fossil trunk of a Lepidodendron was 

 found prostrate in the Royal Arley Mine, near 

 Bolton. The length of the stem was 114 feet 

 up to the point where it began to branch; the 

 branches and foliage could be traced for another 

 17 or 18 feet, and even then were incomplete. 

 The trunk had been flattened, owing to pressure 

 or decay, before fossilisation. At the base the 

 thickness was 3 ft. 8 ins. by 1 ft. 8 ins.; at the 

 time of branching, 1 ft. 9 ins. by 4 ins. Allowing 

 for distortion and some loss of substance the 

 diameter, in the natural condition, may have been 

 about 3 feet at the base, and a little over a foot at 



