490 



PALyEOBOTANY. 



as gigantic extinct members of the Club-moss family (Lycopo- 

 diacece). The genus Lepidodendron (fig. 387) comprises nume- 



Fig. 387. Lepidodendron Sternbergii. Carboniferous. 



rous large arborescent plants, which attain their maximum in 

 the Carboniferous period, but which appear to commence in 

 the Upper Silurian, and are well represented in the Devonian. 

 The trunk in some cases reached a length of fifty feet or more, 



