174 WALKS AND TALKS. 



Here too, are imbedded stems covered all over with seal- 

 like impressions arranged in diagonally winding series. Such 

 , a tree was Lep-i-do-den'-dron, or ''scaly tree," which grew to a 

 height of a hundred feet, with a stem twelve feet in circum- 

 ference. Some of the smaller samples of these steins 

 or branches bear a remote resemblance to the exterior of a 

 snake ; and I have had specimens brought as petrified snakes ! 

 Did you ever observe that the more ignorant people are, the 

 more confident they are of the correctness of their interpreta- 

 tions of nature? Some men entertain no thought whatever that 

 these fossil sticks are any thing different from what their fancy 

 suggests. They do not observe that the specimen is broken at 

 both ends ; that there is no taper toward each extremity, as 

 in a snake, and that the forms mistaken for scales are not 

 closely in contact as in snakes, and are indented by a distinct 

 figure, rather than elevated and flat, with a delicate raised 

 line along the middle, as in most snake "scutes," as we call 

 them. 



We find also another kind of stems, with similar seal-like 

 impressions, but arranged in lines lengthwise of the stem 

 and more remote from each other. This kind of tree is Sig- 

 il-la'-ri-a or "seal-tree." Quite often we find the stump and 

 roots of these trees deeper down in the sandy clay in which 

 the tree originally grew. These are marked by scattered, 

 deep impressions, as if made by a sharp stick. Before these 

 were known to be the roots of Sigittaria, they were named 

 Stig-ma'-ri-a or "mark-tree." 



These trees were not like any species now living. They 

 produced no flowers or fruits which could be compared with 

 those of modern vegetation. Yet we must admit that they 

 possessed resemblances to several different kinds of modern 

 vegetation. When we get a fossil organism of this kind, we 

 say it is " comprehensive." Thus, Lcpidodendron had some 

 structures which affiliated it with our modern "ground pine" 

 (Lycopodiuiri). In another particular it was like the Cycads 

 of tropical regions. In some characters of the wood it was a 

 fir or pine, while in others it was a fern. The " 



