226 FOSSIL COAL PLANTS. 
® 
to follow these stems to a great extent. However, in the mine of Kunzwerk, M. Brong- 
niart was able to measure one stem of Sigillaria, which laid parallel to the gallery of 
extraction; which stem was more than forty feet long. This stem diminished insensi- 
bly, from the base where it was one foot thick, to near the summit where it was only 
six inches, and there divided into two equal branches. I am not aware, that any fossil 
trees from the coal measures have ever been described, which at all approached to the 
dimensions of our Pennsylvania Sigillaria. 
Respecting the admission of the Sigillaires into the family of the ferns, we have seen 
that Messrs. Lindley and Hutton entertain somewhat different views from M. Brongniart 
We have stated, with great brevity, the reasons which induce the last named naturalist 
to adhere to his classification; at the same time, to include therein one section under the 
name of Caulopteris, containing four species of undoubted arborescent ferns, and they are 
strikingly analogous to those which still actually exist. Of these four fossil arborescent 
ferns, one species, the Sigillaire Cisti, exists in the Coal Strata of Wilkesbarre, in this 
State. Fifty-five species of Sigillaria, besides the four of Caulopteris, occupy the coal 
formation. Many of these, perhaps all, are common both to Europe and to America. 
That investigation has still to be followed up. On one point all are agreed:—that all 
the fossil plants, of whatever class, attained a magnitude vastly more considerable than 
the largest existing analogous species. . 
From the rocky covering of this and one or two adjacent coal seams, I have obtained 
specimens of Lycopodium elegans; one or two uncertain casts of Sigillaria; Knorria im- 
bricata’?; Stigmaria ficoides; Lepidodendron, two species; besides carbonized leaves and 
impressions of Lycopodiolites, in the grits and sandstones. Calamites are rare in this 
vicinity. 
The discovery, not long ago announced by Mr. Logan, that the plant Stigmaria cha- 
racterized, and almost universally prevailed in, the under clay of argillaceous floors of the 
coal seams of Kurope, seems to hold good on this continent. On examination, any one 
can perceive that our lower shales, on which coal beds rest, are crowded with the stems 
and leaves of this singular plant. It was, however, further maintained that the floors 
alone, and not the roofs, contain the vestiges of these vegetables. I have not had much 
subsequent opportunity of satisfying myself on the latter point, since its announcement; 
but [ think it 1s extremely probable: and that, in a great measure, the phenomena here 
agree with those developed by the European naturalist. 
The drawing which accompanies this paper, and all the notes respecting the fossil 
plants, which were exhibited on seven or eight thousand square feet, having been com- 
pleted prior to that announcement, I was desirous to see how far they were in conformity 
with Mr. Logan’s system. 
On examining this drawing, we shall perceive that only two specimens of Stigmaria 
occur in the entire length of the gallery. One of them is above the coal, on the north 
wall; the other is below the coal, on the south wall. This is certainly not a very satis- 
factory corroboration; but the plant overlying the coal may be a solitary individual, con- 
nected originally with the thin slaty covering of the coal: as, however, it appears by the 
sketch to have some of its leaves in close proximity, if not in direct contact with the 
stem, it has evidently not been removed from a distance, into the position in which we 
