264 Antediluvian Zoology and Botany. 
also confirm this opinion: for it is observed that those stems 
which have preserved any thing like their original perpendi- 
cularity are filled with the argillaceous, siliceous, or other 
matrix, in which they happen to be embedded, whilst those 
which are inclined appear considerably compressed, and those 
placed horizontally are wholly flattened. In the South Wales 
coal basin some of 
the richest masses 
of iron ore occur, 
moulded into the 
forms of gigantic 
compressed stems of 
plants, and fluted 
reeds or canes. (/i. 
49.) Leaves and 
pericarps of various 
unknown plants, and 
impressions resem- 
bling confervee and 
gramina also occur 
in all the coal for- 
mations. 
M. A. Brongniart 
Part of a fluted stem from this district, one of the vascular has ascertained that 
cryptogamous plants of the coal; resembles Calamites deco- the vascular crypto- 
ratus of Artis’s Antediluvian Phytology, pl. 24., and also 
pl. 14. in the Histoire des Végetauz Fossiles, par M. Adolphe gamous plants had a 
Brongniart. (The tubercles at the extremities of the striz : 
are not sufficiently marked in our figure.) vast numerical pro- 
portion in our great 
coal fields ; “ and, in fact, of 260 species discovered in this 
terrain or period, 220 belong to this class.” 
Vegetables having some analogies to a few of the arundina- 
ceous and succulent plants of the coal measures are occa- 
sionally traced in subsequent formations, amongst which the 
calcareous slate of Stonesfield is particularly distinguishable. 
Ferns, flags, gigantic reeds, and euphorbie occur in the lias, 
Whitby alum shale, and incumbent sandstone. Perhaps the 
most remarkable assemblage of plants of this tribe, after the 
coal measures, is found in the limestone slate and carstone 
of Tilgate Forest. Mr. Mantell enumerates impressions of 
succulent plants, approaching to the euphorbiae, arborescent 
ferns, or palms, and unknown vegetables in a carbonised 
state; and considers that they assimilate to the vegetation of 
hot climates. With the invaluable assistance of Mr. Brown, 
in comparing these plants with recent specimens in his col- 
lection, it has been found practicable to point out, in the fossil 
Flora of ‘Tilgate Forest, some genera which imperfectly ap- 
proach such as are now in existence. Amongst these are the 
