102 M. Brongniart on the Relations of the 
lated to the Lycopodiacee, and some Equisetacee ; and the gym- 
nospermous dicotyledons, comprising the Sigillariee (Sigillaria, 
Stigmaria, Lepidofloyos), the Calamitacee (Calamites), the Coni- 
fere (Waichia), and probably the Asterophyllee (Asterophyllites, 
Annularia and Sphenophylium). We thus see of what great 
importance the latter branch of the vegetable kingdom, which is © 
so limited in the present vegetation, appears to have been at this 
early period. The families which belong to it are moreover 
still the most obscure, and such as deserve most to receive 
the attention of botanists. The characters of most of them are 
merely founded upon the form and structure of the stems, and 
we are in general unacquainted with the form of their leaves and 
fructification. 
The genus to which I now propose to draw attention is un- 
known to us except by its leaves; but I believe that I can refer 
organs of fructification to this genus, establish by this means its 
relations to recent plants upon a solid basis, and show that it 
closely approaches a family of the gymnospermous dicotyledons . 
still in existence, the Cycadee. 
M. de Sternberg * has given the name Noggerathia foliosa to 
an impression of a leaf from the coal-formations of Bohemia. 
At first he did not point out any relation between these plants 
and those at present existing; subsequently, by comparing them 
to the leaves of Caryota, he placed them near the Palms, and 
more recently he arranged them among the monocotyledons, 
without fixing their position. At a period when I was unac- 
quainted with this fossil except from the figure of M.de Sternberg, 
I admitted the analogy of these leaves with those of Caryota. Mr. 
Lindley, and quite recently M. Corda, still admit this position of 
Noggerathia among the Palms. On the contrary, M. Unger + 
and M. Goeppert {, as I presume, have classed this genus among 
the Ferns. Which is the most probable of these opimions? Are 
there not more intimate relations between this fossil plant and 
other living plants ? We shall examine this point. We may first 
remark, that the genus Noggerathia is not confined to the single 
very rare species at first described by M. de Sternberg, and which 
has only hitherto been found in the coal-mines of Bohemia. 
Messrs. Lindley and Hutton long since added Noggerathia fla- 
bellata from the Newcastle mines to this genus. M. Unger enu- 
merates, in addition, two species described by M. Goeppert, and 
I have made known two from the Permian sandstone of Russia 
in Messrs. Murchison and Verneuil’s large work. I should add, 
* Flore du Monde Primitif, fase, 2. p. 32. t. 20. 
+ Synopsis Plantarum Fossilium. 
t Genres des Plantes Fossiles, livraisons 5 et 6 (quoted by M, Unger), 
This livraison has not yet arrived at Paris. 
