K.— BOTANY. 203 



North America, in South America and Australia. Dr. Walkom, of Sydney, 

 has recently recorded some early Carboniferous plants from New South 

 Wales which give additional proof of the striking similarity between the 

 Northern and Southern floras. A piece of a Lepidodendron stem, discovered 

 several years ago in New South Wales and recently described by Mr. 

 Barnard, is indistinguishable in anatomical characters from a species 

 originally discovered in the Lower Carboniferous volcanic beds of Southern 

 Scotland. Similarly a splendid specimen, from New South Wales, of one 

 of the earliest known Ferns, CJepsydropsis, described in an admirable 

 paper by Prof. Sahni, of Lucknow, demonstrates the existence in the 

 Australian flora of a type closely akin to one which flourished in Europe 

 and Siberia. Many other instances of the wide geographical range of 

 early Carboniferous plants might be given : it is evident that during the 

 first half of the period the vegetation of the world, so far as we can tell, 

 was less diversified than it is at the present day. Genera such as Lepidoden- 

 dron and allied forms. Aster ocalamites, the earliest, well-defined example of 

 an Equisetalean type, Rhacopteris and Clepsydropsis among the Ferns, 

 Cardiopteris, which may be a Pteridosperm, were common to both hemi- 

 spheres. Here again we lack data from South Africa. Returning to the 

 Northern hemisphere we pass from the Lower Carboniferous rocks, many 

 of which are marine, to the thick series of Upper Carboniferous sedimentary 

 beds and seams of coal rich in remains of still more varied and luxuriant 

 floras. Over thousands of square miles a monotonous landscape of swamps, 

 occasional sheets of open water, in places the sea near at hand, low hills and 

 plateaux clothed with trees ; forests on invmdated marshes, jungles with 

 no song of birds, and uninhabited by mammals. Groves of Calamites, 

 their strong columns bare below, where branches had been cast off and the 

 bark torn by the expansion of the growing wood within, the tapering 

 upper parts of the stems hidden by closely set tiers of whorled branches 

 bearing star-like clusters of leaves, might suggest to a visitor from the 

 modern world comparison with enlarged Equiseta. Trees such as Lepido- 

 dendron with forked branches forming a crowded mass of needle-studded 

 shoots would at a distance recall some familiar conifers. A greater contrast 

 to the ordinary type of forest tree would be presented by the tall bare stems 

 of Sigillaria, some unbranched, others with an occasional fork, the arms 

 soaring upwards with an elongated cone encased in a tuft of Pine-like 

 needles. The handsome Cordaites, with long strap-like leaves similar to 

 those of a Yucca, would invite comparison with the Kauri Pine of New 

 Zealand. Here and there among the Calamites and Lepidodendra would 

 be found Tree Ferns superficially indistinguishable from existing species. 

 There were other Ferns much "too small and inconspicuous to attract 

 attention on a general view. A member of Section K wandering through 

 the forests of the Coal Age would be struck by the abundance and variety 

 of plants which to him appeared to be Ferns : some with stems like minia- 

 ture Tree Ferns, others of lower growth with fronds borne on creeping 

 rhizomes, and possibly some living as epiphytes, their green leaves standing 

 out against the more sombre coloured trunks of supporting trees. On 

 closer inspection he would discover that most of the supposed ferns bore 

 seeds — some small, others larger than hazel nuts — and clusters of in- 

 conspicuous spore-capsules filled with pollen. The dominance of these 



