Reviews— Professor A. C. Seward’s Fossil Plants. 325 
forming by far the larger part of the forest-like vegetation of the 
Coal-measures all the world over. 
‘“The genus Lepidodendron included species comparable in size with 
existing forest trees. A tapered trunk rose vertically to a height of 
100 feet or upwards from a dichotomously branched subterranean axis, 
of which the spreading branches, clothed with numerous rootlets, grew 
in a horizontal direction probably in a swampy soil or possibly under 
water. A description by Mr. Rodway: of Lycopods on the border 
of a savannah in Guiana, forming a miniature forest of pine-like 
Lycopodiums, might, with the omission of the qualifying adjective, be 
appled with equal force to a grove of Lepidodendra. The equal 
dichotomy of many of the branches gave to the tree a habit in striking 
contrast to that of our modern forest trees, but, on the other hand, in 
close agreement with that of such recent species of Lycopodium as 
L. cernuum, L. obscurum, and other types. Linear or oval cones 
terminated some of the more slender branches, agreeing in size and 
form with the cones of the spruce fir and other Conifers or with the 
male flowers of species of Araucaria, e.g. A. imbricata. Needle-like 
leaves, varying considerably in length in different species, covered the 
surface of the young shoots in crowded spirals, and their decurrent 
bases or leaf-cushions formed an encasing cylinder continuous with 
the outer cortex. The fact that leaves are usually found attached 
only to branches of comparatively small diameter would seem to show 
that Lepidodendron, though an evergreen, did not retain its foliage 
even for so long a period as do some recent Conifers” (p. 93). 
“ By the activity of a zone of growing tissue encircling the cylinder 
of wood, the main trunk and branches grew in thickness year by 
year: the general uniformity in size of the secondary conducting 
elements affords no indication of changing seasons. As the branches 
grew stouter and shed their leaves the surface of the bark resembled 
in some degree that of a spruce fir and other species of Picea, in 
which the leaf-scars form the upper limit of prominent peg-like 
projections, which, at first contiguous and regular in contour, after- 
wards become less regular and separated by grooves, and at a later 
stage lose their outlines as the bark is stretched to the tearing-point. 
The leafless branches of Lepidodendron were covered with spirally 
disposed oval cushions, less peg-like and larger than the decurrent 
leaf-bases of Picea, which show in the upper third of their length 
a clean-cut triangular area, and swell out below into two prominent 
cheeks separated by a median groove, and tapering with decreasing 
thickness to a pointed base which in some forms (e.g. Lepidodendron 
Veltheimianum) is prolonged as a curved ridge to the summit of 
a lower leaf-cushion”’ (p. 94). 
**A fully grown Lepidodendron must have been an impressive tree, 
probably of sombre colour, relieved by the encircling felt of green 
needles on the young pendulous twigs. The leaves of some species 
were similar to those of a fir, while in others they resembled the 
filiform needles of the Himalayan Pine (Pinus longifolia)” (p. 95). 
An interesting explanation is offered of the circular linear scars 
(Ulodendron and Halonia) seen on the stem of certain Lepidodendra 
(e.g. L. Veltheimianum), and which Mr. Watson, of Manchester, has 
