156 STEVENSON— FORMATION OF COAL BEDS. [April i8, 



pages, describe trees as clearly in situ as are those of Senftenberg, 

 described by Potonie, or the stumps in cedar swamps of New Jersey 

 or the cypress swamps of Louisiana. One is amazed at the manner 

 in which the evidence is received, for not infrequently there is an 

 implication that all may be mere assumption, that possibly other 

 explanations may be found, since no one saw the trees growing. It 

 is an assumption, as is almost everything in the reasoning of every- 

 day life. The writer has seen many extensive areas of cleared land 

 on which the stumps remained ; he had not seen the forest in exist- 

 ence, but the relations of the stumps convinced him that they were 

 in loco natali. Buried or submerged forests are commonplace now. 

 The argument in favor of in situ, origin is based on clear-cut ob- 

 servation. The branches of Stigmaria are interlaced in such com- 

 plex fashion that the most ingenious efforts have failed to explain 

 away the phenomenon, and allochthonists have found themselves 

 compelled to resort to the remarkable suggestions of debacles and 

 transport en bloc; but those were impossible amid topographical 

 conditions such as, according to both allochthonists and autoch- 

 thonists, must have existed in the Coal Measures areas. It is abso- 

 lutely certain that no such disturbances accompanied the deposition 

 of the rocks holding the tree stumps, for every feature indicates 

 gentle action; the rhizomas are spread out in normal condition and 

 retain their slightly attached appendages, while the rock itself is the 

 same in all features as it is elsewhere. In many localities, such as 

 those described by Schmitz, Ick, Lesquereux and others in the Coal 

 i\Ieasures, Potonie, Darwin and others in the Tertiary, the spaces 

 between the trees are such as are found in forest growth. In some 

 cases, such as those mentioned by Goeppert, Dawson, Grand'Eury 

 and others, successive growths on the same site are recorded, roots 

 of the newer generation descending amid the stems of their prede- 

 cessors. Not rarely, the roots pierce impressions of leaves previ- 

 ously buried in the soil. At times, prostrate stems are abundant in 

 the intervals between erect stems and frequently the former out- 

 number the latter ; just as one sees on the surface of forested swamps 

 along the Atlantic coast and in the southern states. In not a few 

 cases, the debris of leaves and tv/igs accumulated about the bases 



