428 VEGETATION OF THE CARBONIFEROUS PERIOD 



standing erect as they grew in a forest of Sigillaria, distinctly proving 

 that what have been taken for leaves by the authors of the Fossil Flora, 

 are in reality roots. 



M. Brongniart* ranks them, I am not aware upon what ground, with 

 dicotyledonous plants, allied to Lepidofloyos, whose tissue has been 

 illustrated by Corda. 



Cycadece. 



The only evidence I have seen that this order existed during the car- 

 boniferous period, rests on that afforded by the charcoal (or mother- 

 coal), and rolled nodule of fossil wood, both alluded to at p. 42 1 ; and 

 it is confirmed by the curious observations of Brongniart \ upon Nog- 

 gerathia. 



On the Order Coniferce, and some obscure ones supposed to be allied 

 to Filices, I have no remarks to make : future collectors will doubtless 

 throw some light upon their true nature, especially when it is considered 

 how much these last few months have done for the Lepidodendrons, 

 Lepidostrobi, and Stigmaria. Our provincial collections, and even the 

 still rudimentary one of the Geological Survey, abound in specimens 

 suggestive of most interesting points, yet to be worked out. These, it 

 is trusted, will form the materials for a succession of essays in the 

 Memoirs of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom. 



I cannot conclude these desultory, and I fear unsatisfactory remarks, 

 the fruits of one short year's study in the vast field of inquiry to which 

 they relate, without expressing a hope, that my observations on the dis- 

 couraging aspect of the science will not deter the beginner from pur- 

 suing his investigations : still less that they will lead the geologist to 

 reject such information as the botanist can supply, because it has 

 hitherto been encumbered with loose speculations on the affinities of the 

 genera, distribution of the species, and value of the characters which the 

 latter display. Too much has been expected from the botanist, who 

 wants materials for those bold generalizations which the fossils of the 

 animal kingdom so abundantly supply. Except to individuals who have 

 great facilities for this study, the collection and examination of the 

 waifs and strays of a by-gone Flora is a forbidding pursuit. It can be 

 undertaken to advantage only by him to whom the existing Flora is in 

 some measure familiar, and such an one cannot see the rapid advances 

 in palaeontology which are due to the exertions of the zoologist, without 

 feeling a conviction, that some undistinguishing geologist will expect 

 more definite and immediate results from his labours than the speci- 

 mens at his command may ever afford. 



* Brongniart, Annales des Sciences Naturelles, Ser. 3rd, vol. 5, p. 52. 

 f Brongniart, Annales des Sciences Naturelles, 1. c. 



