VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 103 



The existing Lycopodiacese inhabit the deep shade of the forests, the surface of 

 bogs, or the slopes of mountains, where there is a high degree of humidity, except 

 a few species, which have the power of closing the leaves under the heat of the sun 

 and opening them to receive the rain or fog. Some of them, like the "Ground 

 Pine," are evergreens, and none of them grow beyond a few feet in length. Many 

 Carboniferous plants of this Class, however, were grand and stately trees, two feet 

 or more in diameter, and fifty feet or more in length. Lesquereux says, in speaking 

 of Carboniferous plants : 



" The leaves of the Lycopodiacese are generally in a spiral order, modified 

 sometimes in their relative disposition, even in the same species. They are nar- 

 row, linear-lanceolate, of various length, according to species, all with a strong 

 midrib. Their point of attachment upon the stems is marked by scars of divers 

 forms, which greatly vary in size, according to the age of the fragments, or rather 

 of the part of the tree from which the fragments of bark are derived. It is essen- 

 tially from the characters of these leaf-scars that species of the Lepidodendrse have 

 been established." 



" The fructifications, rarely found attached to their support, are in cylindrical 

 or ovate spikes, sessile or pedicellate, composed of sporanges attached to the anterior 

 base of leaves or blades of various forms, which, curved upward and imbricated, cover 

 the outside of the cones. The sporanges contain organisms of two kinds, either very 

 small ones (microspores), which are like powder, or agglutinated globules of matter, 

 distinct only with microscopes of great power. They may represent the male ferti- 

 lizing pollen. Or, and more generally, they contain macrospores, large, true glob- 

 ular seeds, angular on one side, and rounded on the other." 



The class may be divided into three orders, as follows : 



i. ORDER, I,EPIDODENDRE^. 



Acanthophyton (?), Cyclostigma, Dechenia, Diplostegium, Glyptodendron, Halonia, 

 Knorria, Lepidocystis, Lepidodendron, Lepidophlceum, Lepidophloios, Lepidophyl- 

 lum, Lepidostrobus, Leptophloeum, Lycopodites, Plumalina, Psilophyton, Spor- 

 angites, Sporocystis, Ulodendron. 



2. ORDER, 



Tseniophyllum. 

 3. ORDER, 



Didymophyllum, Pinnularia, Sigillaria, Sigillarioides, Sigillariostrobus, Spirangium, 

 Stigmaria, Syringodendron. 



4. ORDER, NOEGGERATHI^;. 

 Noeggerathia, Whittleseya. 



The Cordaitese, an extinct class, are represented in the Coal Measures, gener- 

 ally by fragments of ribbon-like leaves, and most rarely by stems bearing leaves 

 and flowers. They belong to the Gymnosperms, and occupy a position somewhat 

 intermediate between the Noeggerathise and Coniferse. The genera are as follows : 



