ROOM I. LEPIDODENDRON. 41 



ind Calamodendron by M. Brongniart. These are tbe re- 

 mains of plants altogether different from any known living 

 vegetables in their internal organization. The disposition of 

 the ligneous cylinder and of the medullary rays, indicate a 

 dicotyledonous structure ; but the vascular tissue approaches 

 that of the gymnosperms, and is still more analogous to 

 that of the Sigillariae. 



LYCOPODIACE^J (Lepidodendron, Lepidostrobus, Lepido- 

 phyllum). Cases C, b, E. The upper compartments of these 

 cases [marked 3, 4, and o, in the 

 room] contain a rich assemblage of 

 the stems, leaves, and fruits, of a = 

 gigantic tribe of club-mosses (or 

 Lycopodiaceae), named Lepidoden- 

 dron (or scaly-tree), from the tri- 

 angular scars of the petioles with 

 which the surface of the stem is 

 covered. These plants rivalled in 

 number and magnitude the Calamites 

 and Sigillariae, and their remains 

 are profusely distributed in the coal- 

 shales, occurring, like the stems of 

 the former, both erect and cylin- 

 drical, and prostrate and compressed, 

 as in the examples before us. Some 

 of these trees have been discovered 

 almost entire, from their roots to the 

 topmost branches. Near Newcastle 

 in the Jarrow coal-mine, a tree was 

 laid bare that measured forty feet in 

 height, and above thirteen feet in 

 diameter at the base ; it divided 

 towards the summit into about 

 twenty branches. The foliage (Lepi- 

 dophyllum) of these trees consisted 

 of simple linear leaves, spirally 

 arranged around the stem ; and these 



appear to have been shed from the LEPIDODEXDRON STEHNBERGU. 



base of the trunk by age. The scars ^S?&S3l 



produced by the attachment of the castle. 



petioles were persistent, and are . seldom obliterated in the 



