600 



FOSSIL PLANTS OF THE CARBONIFEROUS SYSTEM. 



to Coniferse. Brongniart says they resemble Zamia integrifolia. King 

 thinks that they are intermediate between Ferns and Cycadaceae, that 

 the fronds called Neuropteris constitute their foliage, and that Stig- 

 marias are their roots. They have a medullary sheath in the shape 

 of apparently isolated bundles, and vessels intermediate between true 

 spiral and scalariform. The bark is said to be composed of two dif- 

 ferent layers, thus giving rise to different impressions. The furrows or 

 fluted marks are due to the arrangement of the leaves on the stem. 

 King says, that if in imagination we delineate a channelled stem of 

 any height between 12 and 100 feet, crowned with a pendant fern- 

 like foliage, furnished with wide-spreading thickly fibrilled roots, and 

 growing in some densely-wooded swamp of an ancient Mississippi, we 

 will then have formed a tolerably close restoration of a Sigillaria vege- 

 tating in its true habitat. 



1184. Catamites (x,^ct/^o;, a reed), another coal fossil plant, occurs 

 in the form of jointed fragments, originally cylindrical, and perhaps 

 hollow, but now crushed and flattened (fig. 810). The stems are 

 branched (fig. 805), and there appears to have been a distinct wood 

 and bark. Their internal cavity seems to have been separated by 

 horizontal partitions at the articulations, the intervals between the 



articulations becoming smaller towards the ends of the branches. Both 

 stems and branches are ribbed and furrowed (fig. 804). Some refer 

 the numerous species of Calamites to Equisetacese, but the presence of 

 wood and bark has led others to place them among Dicotyledons. 



Some interesting fossil Coniferse, included under the names Pinites 

 and Araucarites, are found in the carboniferous sandstone, as in Craig- 

 leith Quarry, near Edinburgh. The specimens found in Craigleith 

 have been referred to Pinites Withami and medullare of Lindley and 

 Hutton ( Araucarites of Goeppert, and Dadoocylon of Endlicher). Some 

 of these seem to be allied to the Araucaria tribe; for instance to Eutassa 



Fig. 804. Calamites Suckovii, composed of jointed striated fragments having a bark. 

 Fig. 805. Calamites cannseformis giving off branches. 



