

we eae ee ee oP 
the globe, he attributes three fossil genera ; /sve/es itself 
(tertiary), and the remarkable Psz/ophyto of Dr, Dawson, 
which he regards as allied to PzZaria and not to Ps/otum. 
But here again we are confronted by the suspicious fact, 
that nothing resembling Ps¢/ophydov has hitherto occurred 
between the Devonian and the present epoch ! 
The fourth family, Sigd//ariee, is only known in a fossil 
state. Szgz//aria is the principal genus, with eighty-three 
species. S?¢zgmartia Schimper regards as roots, but not of 
Sigillaria only, for in a supplementary note to this genus he 
announces the discovery of a specimen of Kxorria longifolia 
(one of the Lefidodendree), the roots of which are a S¢ig- 
maria, the base of the stem is his own genus Azczstro- 
- phyllum, and the upper part is Didymophyllum Schottiné 
of Géppert ; thus knocking four genera into one at a 
blow. Add to this the fact that the leaves and organs of 
fructification, now unknown or unrecognised, may repre- 
sent two more genera, and that there is a suspicious look of 
Ulodendron in one point of the structure, and we have as 
instructive an example of the condition of our knowledge 
of the carboniferous flora as can be desired. 
Passing from Acotyledones to Cotyledones, or flowering 
plants, Dr. Schimper’s first class is of Cycadew. They date 
doubtfully from the middle of the carboniferous, allowing 
Noeggerathia, &c. to belong to this alliance ; inthe Permian 
they are pretty certainly present, and they abound in the 
Trias and Jura formations. Of the two tribes composing 
this group, the Zamiew, which now extend from the Old to 
the New World, seem to have appeared first ; both these 
and the Cycadee proper (which are now confined to the 
Old World) are found in greatest abundance in the Jurassic 
age, whence they decline and disappear in the cretaceous, 
except Zamt@, of which one species persists to the middle 
of the Tertiary epoch. 
Here again, if we hold that the geological record tells 
a fragment of truth, we must believe that the Cycads and 
Zamias, which occupy so very wide an area of the globe in 
the present day, and whose organs and tissues are so well 
suited for petrifaction, had all but disappeared from the 
globe during the lapse of countless ages, to reappear in 
numbers, and that over a most extensive area. 
No fewer than thirteen genera of fossil Zamice are de- 
scribed, and about twenty of Cycade@, including a multi- 
tude of species ; both genera and species are however very 
badly, if at all, defined, being most fragmentary ; and 
Dr. Schimper was of course ignorant of Mr. Carruthers’ 
paper on the Fossil Cycadee of the secondary rocks of 
Great Britain, in the twenty-sixth volume of the Linnean 
Transactions, which throws great light on the subject. 
The genus 7yigonocarpus Dr. Schimper doubtfully regards 
as consisting of fruits of Cycade@ (describing fifteen species), 
together with Ahaddocarpus (twenty-four species), Car- 
diocarpus (twenty-one), and Carpolithes (nine). 
Ascending in the scale of vegetable life, we come to the 
great group of Conifers, which seem to have presented 
such remarkable facilities for petrifaction in all ages from 
the carhoniferous onwards, and which is divided into four 
great sections. 1. Adetacee, with four families ; Walchiee 
and Voltziew, of very, doubtful affinity, if Conifers at all, 
and of which the one is usually placed in Lycofodiacea, 
and the other in Cufressinee—neither have any recent 
representative ; Avaucari@, comprising fourextinct genera, 


43 
together with Araucaria itself; and Addetiee proper, in- 
cluding /Pézzs with 101 species. All appear tertiary ; 
many are miocene, extending from Spitzbergen south- 
wards ; and, judging from the number found in single 
localities, as at Armissan, it would appear that either the 
pine-forests of those days were, unlike the present, formed 
of numerous species, or, what is more probable, that the 
supposed specific characters are worthless. Of larch, 
four miocene species are enumerated ; of cedars, three cre- 
taceous ; of Abies, twenty-two species, all tertiary. 
2. Taxodiacee form Dr. Schimper’s second order of Coni- 
fers ; it includes Segzcoza with twelve species, one of which, 
the well-known miocene S. Langsdorfii, he regards, with 
Heer, as “almost identical with the Californian Zaro- 
dium sempervirens, now confined to Mexico.” In its 
fossil state it extends from Arctic East and West America 
and Greenland to Bonn, Italy, and Greece. Another 
existing Zaxodium, again, contains a miocene species, 
absolutely identical with the living 7. distichum of the 
Southern States of North America, where it forms a large 
proportion of the arboreous vegetation of the Great Dismal 
Swamp. In a fossil state this also extends from Green- 
land and Spitzbergen to North Italy. Two other existing 
genera of this group, the North Chinese G/ypéostrobus, and 
the South African lV’ ¢ddringlonia, are both supposed to be 
found in the European miocene formations. 
3. Of Cupressinez, to which the modern cypress, arbor- 
vitze, juniper, and the extensive genus Cad/itr7s of Aus- 
tralia belong, there are fossil types supposed to belong to 
recent genera ; viz. of Libocedrus, now confined to New 
Zealand and South Chili, there are two Spitzbergen and 
a European species, all miocene ; of 7/z</a, five, all found 
in amber beds. To the American and Japanese White 
Cedars (Chanecyparis) two European fossils are referred. 
The four junipers are a very doubtful lot. 
Taxacee, represented throughout the northern hemi- 
sphere by one living yew, in Japan by the Maiden-hair 
tree (Sadisburiz), and in the tropics and south temperate 
regions of both the old and new worlds by various species 
of Podocarpus, have been supposed to be discovered in 
small numbers in a fossil state. Thus, of Sadésburca, the 
existing Japanese species is believed to be found in the 
miocene of Greenland and near Verona, and two other 
American species are described—all miocene. The fossil 
yews ate all doubtful, and the Podocarpi—eight in all— 
are probably equally so. 
Guelaceé, to which the curious existing genus Guetum 
(tropical), Aphedra (temperate), and Welwztschia (tropi- 
cal) belong, are represented by two modern species of 
Lphetra. 
The volume closes with 130 pages of Monocotyledonous 
fossils—a very miscellaneous and for the most part ex- 
ceedingly obscure assemblage. The existence of this class 
in the carboniferous epoch is regarded by Dr. Schimper 
as not proven, and more than doubtful. In the Trias it 
is pretty well established by Yuccites and £:thophyllum, 
but there is a hiatus between that age and the Jurassic, 
when an obscure set of water-plants and perhaps Par- 
danus occur, to be followed by another hiatus till the 
cretaceous epoch, when Gramince, Cyperacee, and several 
of the principal orders of monocotyledons appear in some 
force. Whether, however, we ascend or descend in the 
scale of vegetable life, as represented by fossil monocoty- 

