AGE OF COAL. 



223 



Fig. 124. 



322. Lepidodendron. This is a name which has been 

 given to a tribe of carboniferous plants that were much 

 like the club-mosses of the present day ; but they were 

 lofty, woody trees. One was found in a coal mine in 

 England that was 40 feet long, and so enormously large 

 at the base as to measure 13 feet in diameter. 



323. Ferns. There was a great abundance of ferns in 

 the Carboniferous age. A very large number of species 

 have been found in the coal strata. In Figs. 125, 126, 



Figs. 125, 126. 



127, and 128 (p. 224) are represented some fossil ferns. 

 The two first are from the coal-measures of Rhode Isl- 



